


Why Rose?

by RhythmLight



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Alien Culture, Aliens, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Multi, Outer Space, Planets, Reincarnation, Rewrite, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 01:21:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,802
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27006481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhythmLight/pseuds/RhythmLight
Summary: When Alexandra died, in the most boring everyday way possible, she never expected to wake up again. When she does, she doesn’t know if she should laugh or cry. Becasue waking up as Rose Tyler in Doctor Who was not something she ever expected but if she is stuck in Rose's body she will make the best of it adn maybe she'll be able to save some people aling the way.
Relationships: Jack Harkness & Rose Tyler, Ninth Doctor & Jack Harkness & Rose Tyler, The Doctor (Doctor Who)/Rose Tyler
Comments: 6
Kudos: 30





	1. Death and Waking up.

**A/N: This has the same beginning as NyxiNight’s story ‘Is This Hell?’ but instead of Alex ending up in The Vampire Diaries she ends up in Doctor Who as Rose Tyler.**

**I have permission from NyxiNight to use Alex and her death scene in this story and I hope they’ll like how this story turns out.**

**I hope you enjoy this story :)**

**Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who, sadly enough :(**

As Alex lay at the bottom of the stairs the only thing going through her mind was ‘you fucking dumbass’. Somehow, she knew she was dying, she could feel her strength waning as she choked on her own blood. She didn’t feel scared of dying though, it actually felt sort of peaceful.

It wasn’t like there was many people who would miss her. Her parents died when she was young and Alex had been raised by her grandfather, who passed away two years ago. She had never really had any friends either as she was considered weird and sometimes to blunt, she didn’t take shit from anyone and always stood for what she believes in.

Alex tried to take a breath but just breathed in more blood. Of course, her already sucky day would end like this, she knew she shouldn’t have gotten out of bed this morning.

It started when her alarm didn’t ring so she was late to work and then she got fired for some bullshit reason, her punching and calling her boss a misogynist, sexist, swine after he slapped her ass could have something to do with it but you know…whatever.

After that her car broke down and refused to start and she had to walk home in the rain. When Alex finally got home, she was drenched and cold and the only thing she wanted to do was take a warm shower and crawl up in bed with a good book.

And that leads to know; because she had walked up the stairs in her wet socks, she had slipped on the step closest to the top and fallen down with one hell of a bang. At least she would finally find out what happened after death, was there a heaven or hell? Nirvana? Or maybe even Valhalla?

The black spots started to creep in and Alex knew that this was it and as everything went black, she had a peaceful smile on her lips.

XOXOXOX

Alex woke up to the sound of an alarm and groggily gets up to go to the bathroom. Something felt weird but she couldn’t put her finger on it until she looked herself in the mirror.

The young woman how looked back wasn’t her. Alex was a thirty-two-year-old woman with her green and pink hair in a pixy cut, the woman staring at her from the mirror was blond and could be no more than eighteen or nineteen years old.

That wasn’t even the really weird part, no that was that the blond woman who looked back at her through the mirror looked exactly like Billie Piper!

That’s when the memories hit her like a freight train, she had fallen down the stairs and Alex was pretty sure she died, so why was she in Billie Piper’s body?

“You okay, love?” An older female voice called out from the other side of the bathroom door.

“Yeah, I'm fine.” Alex opened the door and saw…Jackie Tyler?!

“You’ll be late if you don’t hurry.” Jackie said and walked away.

Alex cursed silently, she wasn’t in Billie Piper’s body, she was in Rose Tyler’s. She loved Doctor Who but she could not stand Rose, why couldn’t she end up as Martha or even Amy? Rose was such a childish and selfish person.

Alex walked over to Rose’s wardrobe to pick some clothes and found nothing that fit her style, at all. As she picked out a pair of light blue jeans and a t-shirt, she decided she would buy some other clothes on her lunch break.

“Bye!” Alex called out to Jackie as she ran out the door and she heard Jackie’s response right before the door closed. “See you later!”

If Alex remembered correctly from the tv show, Rose worked at a department store called _Henrick’s_. As she made her way through Central London Alex feet relived that she had worked as an au pair in London as a teenager.

The rest of the day past quickly as Alex was mostly lost in thought about what was going on. On her lunch break she met with Micky but said she needed to buy some clothes so she couldn’t have lunch with him.

She also told him that she wanted to break up with him but still be friends, because honestly? While Alex had liked Mickey in the later seasons in the beginning, he was such a weird annoying person. He had been sad and walked away but hopefully they could remain friends after he calmed down.

When she came back to work, she was wearing her new clothes, consisting of white skinny jeans tucked into knee high, high heeled boots with silver clasps, a long-sleeved crop top with a zip-up hoddie over it. She had also decided to get the tips of her blond hair colored blue and was pleasantly surprised when they turned out to be Tardis Blue.

At the end of the day Alex/Rose was exhausted mentally but had come to the decision that if she was really stuck in Rose Tyler’s body, she was going to do it her way and use her knowledge of the show to her advantage.

_“This is a customer announcement. The store will be closing in five minutes. Thank you”_ Came a voice over the speakers at Alex/Rose walked towards the main doors with her coworkers.

“Oi!” The guard at the door shook a clear plastic bag in front of Alex/Rose face.

“Oh, right.” Alex/Rose grabbed the bag and made her way to the lift to go done to the basement, it was time to meet The Doctor. “Wilson? Wilson, I've got the lottery money. Wilson, are you there?”

Alex/Rose walked through the basement thinking about two things, first; she really needed to start thinking of herself as just ‘Rose’ and second; basements were really fucking creepy.

“I can’t hang about ‘cos they're closing the shop.” Ale…Rose called out. “Wilson! Oh, come on.”

Rose walked further into the basement and then she heard a clattering sort of noise further down the corridor.

“Wilson, is that you?” Rose called out even though she knew it wasn’t. “For fucks sakes, I hate basements. And now I'm talking to myself, great.”

A male shop dummy started to move towards her and Rose slowly backed away, then several more joined the first in approaching her. “If you don’t back the fuck off, I'm going to hurt you!”

Rose backed up into a wall and closed her eyes as she saw the dummy raise its hand to strike her. Then suddenly someone grabbed her hand.

“Run!” The Doctor pulled her into a sprint with him.

Together they ran through the basement towards the lift and managed to make it in but the lead shop dummy managed to shove his arm in before the doors closed. The Doctor grabbed its arm and managed to tug it off after several tries.

“Do you normally rip peoples arms off?” Rose asked when the lift started moving upwards.

“Only when it’s plastic.” The Doctor smiled and tossed the arm at her.

“Huh.” Rose inspected the arm.

“What?” The doctor asked.

“Well, I expected some form of…I don’t know, mechanical parts?” Rose looked at him. “Plastic doesn’t move on it’s on…well not usually anyway.”

“You are a very unusual young woman.” The Doctor said as he looked at her.

“Thank you.” Rose smiled brightly at him.

“Mind your eyes.” The Doctor said as they walked out of the lift behind _Hendrick’s_ and he disabled the lift mechanism with his sonic screwdriver.

“Who are you?” Rose asked kindly. “And who where they, down in the basement?”

“They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures.” The Doctor told her. “They're being controlled by a device in the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn’t have this.” The Doctor waved a small device in front of her. “So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up and I might die in the process, but don’t worry about me. No, you go home.”

“Hold up.” Rose interrupted. “You want me to just let you go off on what might be a suicide mission and not be worried? Seriously?”

“Yep and don’t tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed.” The Doctor instructed as he walked into the building again, then he opened it and looked at her. “I'm The Doctor, by the way. What's your name?”

“A…Rose.” Rose told him, managing to stop herself from fully saying Alex.

“Nice to meet you Rose.” The Doctor smiled a maniac smile. “Run for your life!”

Rose quickly made her way to the main road, chuckling to herself. As she ran across the road, she almost became a hood ornament for a black cab.

“Watch it!” The taxi driver shouted at her.

“Oi, I'm walkin’ here!” Rose shouted back with a glare.

Rose looked up when she heard the explosion and saw a huge fireball take out the upper floor of _Hendrick’s_. She calmly walked past the Tardis, doing her best not to run her hand along it, as she made her way back to Rose’s home…guess it was her home now, though.

An hour later Rose sat on the settee as Jackie talked on the phone and the news on the tv in the background.

“I know. It’s on the telly. It’s everywhere. She's lucky to be alive.” Jackie was saying into the phone. “Honestly, I aged her. Skin like an old bible.” Rose chuckled quietly at Jackie. “Walking in now you’d think I was her daughter. Oh, and here's himself.”

Micky rushed into the apartment, “Well, what happened?”

“I don’t know.” Rose shrugged,

“What was it though?” Mickey asked. “What caused it?”

“Aliens.” Rose deadpanned, trying her best not to laugh.

“It’s Debbie on the end.” Jackie said as she cam back into the room. “She knows a mon on the Mirror. Five hundred quid for an interview.”

“Oh that’s brilliant! Give it here.” Rose stood up and took the phone to end the call, happy to use one of the sassiest replies in the first episode.

“Well, you’ve got to find some way of making money.” Jackie huffed. “Your job’s kaput and I'm not bailing you out.”

Rose was about to answered but closed her mouth as the phone started to ring again.

“Bev! She's alive.” Jackie answered the phone quickly. “I've told her, sue for compensation. She was within seconds of death.”

“She's being a bit dramatic, no?” Rose chuckled as she looked at Mickey. “And before you try and say that I need something stronger than tea, I know there’s a match on so you go and catch the last five minutes.”

“How did you…?” Mickey asked slowly.

“I'm psychic now.” Rose smirked at him. “Go on, Mickey. I know that you need to be away from me after the break up.”

“So, you were serious about that.” Micky looked down sadly.

“Yeah and I'm sorry that I hurt you but it’s better to break up instead of leading you on, right?” Rose looked at him softly. “I'm actually thinking about traveling around the world, maybe do some volunteer work in a far-off country.”

“I guess your right.” Mickey mumbled. “I'm just going to go.”

“Can you throw this away on the way out?” Rose sighed and gave him the plastic arm from the dummy, then she watched him leave, hoping she did the right thing.

XOXOXOX

The next morning the alarm went off at 7:30 making Rose glare at it hatefully.

“There's no point in getting up, sweetheart.” Jackie called out to her as she sat up. “You’ve got no job to go to.”

Rose groaned but decided to get up anyway. After taking a quick shower she put on the same clothes she had on yesterday, having only had time to buy one outfit on her lunch break. She let her hair air dry and made it look artfully messy and then she put on some eyeliner and mascara to face the day.

“There’s _Finch’s_.” Jackie said as Rose finished of her breakfast. “You could try them; they’ve always got jobs.”

“I think I’ll pass.” Rose shuddered. Right now, she was very crateful for her re-watching of Doctor Who several times, otherwise she wouldn’t know what Jackie was talking about. “I could not handle the butchers.”

“I'm not joking about the compensation, by the way.” Jackie told her. “You’ve had genuine shock and trauma. Arianna got two thousand quid off the council just because the old man behind the desk said she looked Greek! I know she is Greek, but that is not the point, it was a valid claim.”

Rose heard the cat flap rattled and smiled as Jackie walked into her bedroom. “Mum didn’t you nail the cat flap down?”

“I did it weeks back.” Jackie protested.

Rose walked up to the door and saw the nails on the floor around the door. Then the flap moved and Rose opened it to see the Doctor trying to look through it.

“What are you doing here?” The Doctor asked as Rose opened the door.

“I live here.” Rose raised an eyebrow at him.

“Well, what do you do that for?” The Doctor tilted his head.

“Ehh.” Rose shrugged. “Felt like it.”

“I must have the wrong signal. You're not plastic, are you?” The Doctor knocked on her forehead. “No, bonehead. Bye, then.”

“Don’t think so.” Rose grabbed him by the jacket and pulled him inside. “We need to talk.”

“Who is it?” Jackie called out.

“It’s about last night.” Rose said and technically it wasn’t a lie. “Give us ten minutes.”

Rose walked into the living room and turned around to wait for The Doctor. “So…”

The Doctor started to look around the living room as Rose observed him. He picked up a copy of Heat off the coffee table, “That won’t last, he’s gay and she’s an alien.”

Rose smiled in amusement as The Doctor quickly flicked through a book and commented that it had a sad ending. Then he picked up a letter and read the name on it, “Rose Tyler.”

“That’s me.” Rose piped up and quietly thought. ‘Well, sort of anyway.’

The Doctor started to turn towards her but saw himself in the mirror and stopped to look. “Ah, could’ve been worse.” He flicked his ears. “Look at the ears.”

“Are you done?” Rose asked kindly as The Doctor tried to shuffle a deck of cards and failed.

“What’s that then?” The Doctor looked at her as they heard the cat flap rattle. “You got a cat?”

“Nope.” Rose denied just as the plastic arm she told Mickey to throw out flew up and grabbed The Doctor by the throat.

Rose reacted instantly and tried to help as best she could. The Doctor managed to throw the arm off after a bit of a struggle but it froze in midair and grabbed onto Rose’s face instead. After having struggled for a while the Doctor managed to get the arm off and inert with the help off his sonic screwdriver.

“It’s alright, I've stopped it.” The Doctor reassured her. “There you go, you see? Armless.”

“I guess the dummy it came from is all left now.” Rose smirked.

“Funny.” The Doctor smiled at her, then he walked away.

“Hey, you can’t just go swanning off.” Rose ran after him.

“This is me, swanning off.” The Doctor hummed. “See you.”

“Will you please explain what’s going on?” Rose begged. “I don’t want to end up in a padded room with a hug myself jacket.”

“You won’t end up in a padded room.” The Doctor told her.

“Doctor, why did the plastic arm try to kill you?” Rose asked softly.

“It could’ve been trying to kill you.” The Doctor pointed out.

“Nah, I'm just a nobody.” Rose shrugged. “But any way, living plastic what does it want?”

“The thing controlling it projects life into the arm.” The Doctor explained as he looked at her. “I cut off the signal, dead.”

“So, it’s radio control?” Rose asked slowly.

“Thought control.” The Doctor corrected. “Are you all right?”

“Absolutely.” Rose smiled at him. “So, who’s controlling it then?”

“Long story.” The Doctor started to walk away again.

“I'm assuming they, whoever ‘they’ are, are not out to take over Britain’s shops?” Rose hummed thoughtfully.

“It’s not a price war. They want to overthrow the human race and destroy you.” The Doctor looked at her seriously. “Do you believe me?”

“Yes.” Rose nodded. “Who are you really, Doctor?”

“Do you know like we were saying? About the Earth revolving?” The Doctor walked towards her. “It's like when you're a kid. The first time they tell you that the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it 'cos everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it.” He grabbed her hand tightly. “The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at 1,000 miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at 67,000 miles an hour, and I can _feel_ it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go...” He dropped her hand gently. “That's who I am.”

“Sounds lonely.” Rose murmured sadly.

“Now, forget about me, Rose Tyler.” The Doctor started to walk away again. “Go home.”

Four hours later, after she had gone to Mickey’s and then to Clive’s like there was something in her head pushing her to do it, she and plastic Mickey were sitting at a pizza restaurant. As she waited for the Doctor to show up, she talked about anything and nothing with plastic Mickey.

“So, where did you meet this Doctor?” Plastic Mickey asked.

“What’s that got to do with the weather?” Rose played oblivious.

“Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right?” Plastic Mickey asked eagerly. “Was he something to do with that?”

“What is wrong with you today?” Rose smirked. “You're acting like a whole different person.”

Plastic Mickey started to talk really fast and stumbling over word.

“Your champagne.” A familiar voice said.

“We didn’t order any champagne.” Plastic Mickey didn’t stop staring at Rose. “Where’s the Doctor?”

“Do you really think that even if I knew where he was, I would tell some plastic thing who probably kidnapped my friend?” Rose looked at plastic Mickey calmly.

“I need to find out how much you know, so where is he?” Plastic Mickey grabbed onto Rose’s wrist pretty hard.

“Doesn’t anybody want this champagne?” The Doctor asked, sounding slightly annoyed at being ignored.

“Look, we didn’t order it.” Plastic Mickey finally looked up at the Doctor. “Ah, gotcha.”

“Don’t mind me, I'm just toasting the happy couple.” The Doctor started to shake the champagne bottle. “On the house!”

The cork flew into plastic Mickey’s forehead and after a few moments, he spit it out.

“Anyway.” Plastic Mickey stood up and turned his hand into a shopper.

Rose backed up as plastic Mickey wrecked the table. the doctor quickly grabbed plastic mickeys head and pulled it off to the screams of the rest of the customers.

“Don’t think that’s going to stop me.” The Mickey head said.

Rose quickly set off the fire alarm to get everyone out, then she followed the Doctor through the kitchen. As the Doctor sealed the exit shut Rose looked at the Tardis, she couldn’t believe that she was actually about to step inside and see her for real.

The Doctor walked past her into the Tardis. “Are you coming?”

Rose walked into the Tardis and froze as she looked around, absentmindedly she asked. “What if the body follows us in here?”

“The assembled hordes of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and, believe me, they've tried.” The Doctor assured her. “Now, shut up a minute.”

While the doctor fiddled with the head Rose took a closer look around the Tardis, the console is in the middle of the ‘room’ and the walls are slightly curved. There was coral like pillars going up towards the celling and hexagon lights on the walls.

“You see, the arm was too simple, but the head’s perfect.” The Doctor explained. “I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source. Right. Where do you want to start?”

“She’s beautiful.” Rose breathed out in awe.

“That she is.” The Doctor looked a little shocked that she didn’t say the whole ‘It’s bigger on the inside’ thing but mostly he looked pleased.

“She’s alien.” Rose stated. “And so are you.”

“Yes.” The Doctor nodded. “Is that all right?”

“Why wouldn’t it be?” Rose asked softly, still looking around in awe.

“It’s called the Tardis, this thing.” The Doctor gestured around them. “T. A. R. D. I. S. That’s Time And Relative Dimensions In Space.”

“She's absolutely amazing.” Rose beamed at him.

“You really aren't like most normal people.” The Doctor hummed.

“Normal people are boring.” Rose shrugged then she frowned. “Are you just going to let the head melt?”

“Melt?” The Doctor turned around and saw the plastic head melting on the console. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no!”

“What's going on?” Rose asked as the Doctor started to fly the Tardis-

“We are following the signal, it’s fading. Wait a minute, I've got it.” The Doctor ran around the console mumbling no over and over. “Almost there. Almost there. Here we go!”

The Tardis stopped moving and Rose looked around and then she followed the Doctor out of the Tardis.

“I lost the signal, I got so close.” The Doctor was close to pouting.

“Did we fly?” Rose asked as she looked at the London eye.

“Disappears there and reappears here.” The Doctor shrugged. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Rude much.” Rose raised an eyebrow at him.

“If I'm slightly rude it’s because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, all right?” The Doctor glared at her.

Rose just kept looking at him until he started squirming then she smirked and looked away. “Why does she look like one of those old police boxes?”

“It’s a disguise.” The Doctor informed her proudly.

“Cool.” Rose hummed. “By the way, what does the living plastic have against us?”

“Nothing, it loves you.” The Doctor told her. “You’ve got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants totted, so Earth? Dinner!”

“Any way of stopping it?” Rose asked.

“Anti-plastic.” The Doctor held up a tube of blue liquid.

“Wouldn’t that kill it?” Rose wondered.

“Yes.” The Doctor nodded.

“Can’t we just ask it to leave?” Rose looked at the Doctor hopefully.

“You are a special one, Rose Tyler.” The Doctor smiled. “I need to find it first before I can even start thinking about asking it to leave. How can you hide something that big in a city this small?”

“Hide what?” Rose looked puzzled even though she knew.

“The transmitter.” The Doctor said absentmindedly. “The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal.”

“What does it look like?” Rose hummed.

“A huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we’re standing.” The Doctor rambled. “Must be completely invisible.”

Rose just started at the London Eye and the Doctor was not getting it so she grabbed his chin and turned his head towards it.

“Oh.” The Doctor said as he figured it out, then he turned towards Rose with a bright smile “Fantastic.”

Rose and the Doctor ran across Westminster Bridge and came to a stop by the parapet.

“Think of it; plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive.” The doctor looked at her. “The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables…”

“The breast implants.” Rose interrupted with a laugh.

“Still. We've found the transmitter.” The Doctor beamed at her. “The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath.”

“What about down there?” Rose pointed at a large manhole entrance at the bottom of some steps.

“Looks good to me.” The Doctor said as they made their way there.

They climbed down a short ladder into a brick-built area with lots of chains. Rose followed the Doctor through a door and down a flight of stairs into a multilevel chamber.

“The Nestene Consciousness.” The Doctor gestured to a big blob in a vat. “That’s it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature.”

“Well then, go and talk to them and ask them to leave.” Rose encouraged.

“Them?” The Doctor asked as he looked at her.

“Calling them an _it_ seemed rude.” Rose shrugged.

The Doctor walked down to the catwalk after sending a look of wonder at Rose. “I seek an audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation.”

Rose watched as the Nestene Consciousness moved in the vat.

“Thank you.” The Doctor nodded. “If I might have permission to approach?”

Rose saw a glimpse of Mickey and ran over to him. “It’s alright Mickey.”

Mickey grabbed at her arms, “That thing down there, the liquid. Rose, it can talk!”

“Mickey don’t be rude.” Rose reprimanded. “They are a conscious living being, if you have to address them you can use ‘them’ or ‘they’.”

“You seem to be a very accepting young woman.” The Doctor smiled at her again as he continued downwards.

“I try to be at least.” Rose said softly.

“Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you.” The Doctor stooped in front of the vat. “If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilization by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you shunt off?”

A face formed on the plastic as the Consciousness moved about.

“Oh, don’t give me that. It’s an invasion, plain and simple. Don’t talk about constitutional right.” The Doctor said strongly. “I am talking! This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they are capable of so much more. I'm asking on their behalf. Please, just go.”

Rose saw the two shop dummies walk towards the Doctor and called out to warn him. “Doctor!”

“That was just insurance, I wasn’t going to use it.” The Doctor denied as the dummies pulled the vial of anti-plastic from his pocket. “I was not attacking you. Om her to help. I'm not your enemy, I swear, I'm not. What do you mean?”

Apparently, the Consciousness said something because a door slid back to reveal the Tardis.

“No, oh, no. Honestly, no.” The Doctor looked between the Consciousness and the Tardis with a worried expression. “Yes, that’s my ship. That’s not true, I should know, I was there. I fought in the war; it wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t save your world; I couldn’t save any of them!”

“What are they doing?” Rose asked.

“It’s the Tardis!” The Doctor explained. “The Nestene’s identified its superior technology. It’s terrified. It’s going to the final phase. It’s starting the invasion! Get out, Rose! Just leg it now!”

As the plastic in the vat roared, Rose called Jackie. “Mum?”

“Oh, there you are.” Jackie answered. “I was just going to phone, you can get compensation, I said so. I've got this document thing off the police. Don’t thank me.”

“Where are you, mum?” Rose asked even if she already knew.

“I'm in town.” Jackie said.

“Just go home, mum.” Rose urged her. “I’ve heard rumors about an attack or something, so just go home!”

“Darling you're breaking up.” Jackie said loudly into the phone. “Listen, I'm just going to do a bit of late-night shopping, I’ll see you later. Ta-Ta.”

“Well, shit.” Rose swore as Jackie hung up and the Consciousness started to throw energy bolts around.

“It’s the activation signal.” The Doctor called out. “It’s transmitting!”

“The end of the world.” Rose muttered slightly bored.

“Get out, Rose!” The Doctor called out to her. “Just get out! Run!”

“What got will that do?” Rose called back. “I either die in here or out there, so it doesn’t really matter.”

“We’re going to die!” Mickey wailed.

“Oh stop being a drama queen.” Rose grumbled.

“No!” The Doctor protested.

“Time Lord.” The Nestene growled and Rose was shocked that she understood it.

“I am not dying today!” Rose snarled and made her way to a very long chain on the wall and take a hold.

Then she ran and swung out along the side of the catwalk, kicking the two dummies into the vat. The second dummies had been holding the vial of anti-plastic and the Nestene screamed as it started to turn blue.

“Rose!” The Doctor grabbed her around the waist as she swung back towards him. “Now we’re in trouble.”

“Run!” Rose smirked as she grabbed the Doctors hand and ran towards the Tardis where Mickey were holding on for dear life. They all run into the Tardis and the Doctor starts flipping switches so they could get out of there.

When they landed or materialized on the Embankment by a row of shuttered kiosks, Mickey ran out completely terrified.

Rose chuckled as she walked over to where micky was hiding behind a pallet while the Doctor stayed in the doorway of the Tardis.

“Well, that was fun.” Rose smiled at the Doctor.

“Nestene Consciousness?” The Doctor smirked. “Easy.”

“You were useless in there.” Rose laughed at him. “You’d be dead if it weren’t for me.”

“Yes, I would.” The Doctor looked at her gratefully. “Thank you. Right then, I’ll be off, unless, er, I don’t know, you could come with me. This box isn’t just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge.”

“Don’t!” Mickey grabbed onto her leg. “He’s an alien. He's a thing.”

“Mickey!” Rose glared at him.

“He’s not invited.” The Doctor said. “What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere.”

“I've always wanted to travel.” Rose murmured. “I was even planning on it since my job blew up. Is it always this dangerous?”

“Yeah.” The Doctor admitted.

“Mickey, I'm going to travel for a while.” Rose smiled and walked towards the Tardis and the Doctor.

The Doctor smiled as he held the door open for her and then he followed inside the Tardis.

**A/N: First chapter done!**

**What do you guys think, should I keep going?**


	2. The end of the world

As the Doctor started to flip a few switches again he looked at Rose, “Right then, Rose Tyler, you tell me. Where do you want to go? Backwards or forwards in time, it’s your choice. What's it going to be?”

“Forward.” Rose smiled brightly in excitement.

“How far?” The Doctor asked.

“One hundred years.” The words were out of Rose’s mouth before she could even think about saying anything else.

When the Tardis came to a stop the Doctor pointed to the door. “There you go. Step outside those doors, it’s the twenty second century.”

“Seriously?” Rose asked in wide eyed happiness.

“That’s a bit boring though.” The Doctor hummed. “Do you want to go further?”

“Fine by me.” Rose laughed.

“Ten thousand years in the future.” The Doctor said as they came to a stop again. “Step outside, it’s the year 12005, the new Roman Empire.”

“You think you are so impressive.” Rose chuckled.

“I am so impressive.” The Doctor protested.

“You wish.” Rose smirked at him.

“Right then, you asked for it.” The Doctor spun a thing on the console and pushed a few more buttons. “I know exactly where to go. Hold on!”

“Where are we?” Rose asked even if she knew exactly where they were; Satellite 5. “What’s out there?”

The Doctor only gestured for her to step outside. As she stepped outside, she saw a huge window at the bottom of some steps, showing that they were in orbit around Earth.

“You lot, you spend all your time thinking about dying, like you're going to get killed by eggs or beef or global warming or asteroids. But you never take the time to imagine the impossible, that maybe you survive.” The Doctor walked up behind her as she stood in front of the window, just watching the Earth. “This is the year five point five slash apple slash twenty six. Five billion years in your future, and this is the day,” He looked at his watch. “Hold on.” The sun flared up and turned red. “This is the day the Sun expands. Welcome to the end of the world.”

As Rose and the Doctor started to walk towards what Rose remembered from the show was the big meeting room they heard a voice over the speakers.

“ _Shuttles five and six now docking. Guests are reminded that Platform One forbids the use of weapons, teleportation and religion. Earth Death is scheduled for fifteen thirty nine, followed by drinks in the Manchester Suit._ ”

“When they say ‘guests’ it means people right?” Rose asked softly as they walked.

“Aliens.” The Doctor said.

“Aren't aliens people?” Rose looked at him.

“Of course, they are.” The Doctor smiled proudly at her.

“What are they all doing on…Platform one?” Rose wondered. “What is it all for?”

“This is an observation deck.” The Doctor explained. “The great and the good are gathering to watch the planet burn.”

“What for?” Rose watched as the Doctor used his sonic screw driver on a wall panel.

“Fun.” The Doctor beamed.

They walked into a large area with a few display cases and a view of space to the front and above.

“Mind you, when I said the great and the good, what I mean is, the rich.” The Doctor told her as they walked towards the big window.

“Doctor, why does the planet look the same?” Rose looked down on her home planet. “Shouldn’t the continents have shifted?”

“They did and the Trust shifted them back.” The Doctor bounced a little on his feet. “That’s a classic Earth. But now the money’s run out, nature takes over.”

“How long’s it got?” Rose smiled at him.

“About half an hour and then the planet gets roasted.” The Doctor chuckled.

“There’s no one down there, right?” Rose wanted to know.

“You don’t have to worry, it’s empty. Everyone has left.” The Doctor reassured her.

“Who the hell are you?” A blue-skinned person with golden slitted eyes hurried towards them.

“Oh, that’s nice, thanks.” The Doctor hummed.

“But how did you get in? This is a maximum hospitality zone.” The steward fretted. “The guests have disembarked. They're on their way any second now.”

“That’s me, I'm a guest. Look, I've got an invitation.” The Doctor pulled out his psychic paper. “Look, there you see? The Doctor plus one. I'm the Doctor and this is Rose Tyler, she's my plus one. Is that alright?”

“Well, obviously.” The steward blustered. “Apologies, et cetera. If you're on board, we’d better start. Enjoy.”

“The paper’s slightly psychic.” The Doctor showed her the paper. “It shows them whatever I want them to see. Saves a lot of time.”

“But it’s just a blank piece of paper.” Rose pointed out; a bit disappointed that she couldn’t see anything.

“What?” The Doctor asked shocked.

“It’s just a blank piece of paper.” Rose repeated.

“We have in attendance the Doctor and Rose Tyler. Thank you. All staff to their positions.” As Rose turned to watch a lot of small people appear, she missed the intrigued look the Doctor was sending her. “Hurry, now, thank you. Quick as we can. Come along, come along.”

The steward started to introduce all the guest but Rose ignored him in favor of smiling at Jabe as she walked over.

“The Gift of Peace.” Jabe handed over a small pot with a plant. “I bring you a cutting of my Grandfather.”

As the Doctor started to pat his pocket for a return gift Rose stepped forward. “In return I give you a small pebble from the planet below.” Rose pulled out a small stone out of her hoddie pocket and gave it to Jabe.

“That is a might gift indeed.” Jabe bowed her head at Rose. “Thank you.”

“From the Silver Devastation, the sponsor of the main event, please welcome the Face of Boe.” The stewards said as the Face of Boe arrived.

Jabe and her companions left as Rose looked at the Face of Boe and if she remembered correctly, that was also the being who had once upon a time gone by the name Jack Harkness.

“It was very lucky that you had those stones in your pockets.” The Doctor smiled at her.

“I don’t know why I do.” Rose lied quickly with a shrug. “I just felt this instant need since I woke up two days ago to collect small round stones.”

“Do you often have these feelings of having to do something?” The Doctor asked softly.

“It happens.” Rose tried to sound vague.

“And those these things you do help at a later date?” The Doctor looked at her seriously.

“Yes…” Rose said quietly.

Before the Doctor could ask any more questions The Moxx of Balhoon approached them in his pod.

“The Moxx of Balhoon.” The Doctor smiled, not noticing Rose edging behind him.

“My felicitations on this historical happenstance. I give you the gift of bodily saliva.” The Moxx said and spit the Doctor in the face.

“Thank you kindly.” Rose stepped forward, trying not to laugh at the Doctor. “And in return I give you a pebble from the planet below.”

As The Moxx leaves a group of black-robed figures glided up to them silently.

“Ah! The Adherents of the Repeated Meme.” The Doctor said happily after he had dried his face from The Moxx’s saliva. “We bring you a pebble from the planet below.”

“A gift of peace in all good faith.” A large metal hand held out a ball.

“And last but not least, our very special guest.” The steward announced. “Ladies and gentlemen, trees and multiform, consider the Earth below. In memory of this dying world, we call forth the last Human. The Lady Cassandra O’Brien Dot Delta Seventeen.”

“Oh, now, don’t stare. I know, I know it’s shocking, isn’t it? I've had my chin completely taken away and look at the difference. Look at how thin I am. Thin and dainty. I don’t look a day over two thousand. Moisturize me, moisturize me.” Cassandra said as one of her attendants used a pump spray on her. “Truly, I am the last Human. My father was Texan, my mother from the Artic Desert. They were born on the Earth and were the last to be buried in its soil. I have come to honor them and say goodbye. Oh, no tears, no tears. I'm sorry. But behold, I bring gifts. From Earth itself, the last remaining ostrich egg. Legend says it had a wingspan of fifty feet and blew fire from its nostrils. Or was that my third husband? Oh, no. Oh, don't laugh. I'll get laughter lines. And here, another rarity.”

Rose watched with disbelief as the rolled in a 50’s jukebox.

“According to the archives, this was called an iPod.” Cassandra explained. “It stores classical music from humanity’s greatest composers. Play on!”

The Doctor started to nod along to Tainted Love by Soft Cell but stopped when he saw Rose run out. He sighed and went to follow her but was intercepted by Jade.

“Doctor?” Jade asked and as he turned towards her there was a flash. “Thank you.”

The Doctor just smiled at her and went to find Rose. The special human he had brought with him. She was very different from most humans he had met; she saw everyone as people instead of humans and aliens. That she saw a blank paper when he showed her the psychic paper intrigued him but not as much as the gift she seemed to have about subconsciously knowing that she would need something.

After looking for a while he finally found Rose in the gallery where they had first seen the Earth through the window.

“You alright?” The Doctor asked as he sat down beside her.

“Yeah, sorry for running out.” Rose smiled brightly at him.

“Got a bit much?” The Doctor assumed.

“Huh?” Rose looked confused then her face cleared. “No, I needed to get out of there before I started to laugh my ass off. They are so clueless about my time and that is hilarious.”

“Yeah, a lot of things have gotten lost over the years.” The Doctor nodded with a smile.

“How come they all speak English?” Rose looked at him. “Shouldn’t they have their own languages? Please tell me humans didn’t force English on them?”

“You just hear English.” The Doctor reassured. “It’s a gift of the Tardis. The telepathic field, gets inside your brain and translates.”

“That is so cool.” Rose breathed out with wide eyes.

The Doctor beamed at her with happiness even as the computer reminded them about the Earths death in twenty minutes.

“You are a very delightful person and very accepting of everything going on.” The Doctor looked at her.

“What good would freaking out do?” Rose laughed. “And I've always believed in life on other planets, I mean, the universe is way too big for there only to be humans, right?”

“Fantastic.” The Doctor beamed at her.

“Hey can I take a picture?” Rose pulled out her phone, which was old and had buttons, god she missed her iPhone. “Or is that against the rules?”

“You can take a photo, but most people will have to think it’s a photo of a photo.” The Doctor shrugged.

“Huh, look at that.” Rose said after she snapped a picture of the Earth from orbit. “There’s no signal. We seem to be a tiny bit out of range.”

“Tell you what.” The Doctor took her phone and pulled it apart. “With a little bit of jiggery pokery.”

“Is that a technical term?” Rose chuckled.

“Yeah, I came first in jiggery pokery.” The Doctor smiled at her as he soniced her phone and put it back together. “What about you?”

“Nah, I failed hullabaloo.” Rose accepted the phone back and called her mom.

“ _Hallo?_ ” Jackie answered.

“Mum?” Rose asked amazed that the phone could call through time.

“ _Oh, what is it?”_ Jackie asked. “ _What’s wrong? What have I done now? Oh, this red top’s falling to bits, you should get your money back._ ”

Rose chuckled at her, as Alex she had found Jackie adorable if a bit clueless.

“ _There must be something, you never phone in the middle of the day._ ” Jackie pointed out.

“I just called to tell you that I got a really good offer to go to Africa to help endangered animals.” Rose lied quickly, feeling grateful that she remembered to grab her passport before the whole thing with the Doctor happened. “I leave in fifteen minutes and I might not be able to call because where we’re going doesn’t have any phone coverage.”

“ _You’re going to leave without saying goodbye?_ ” Jackie sounded shocked and sad.

“I'm sorry mum, I really am, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.” Rose told her softly. “Imagine all the jobs I can get when I come back with this on my resume.”

“ _If you are sure, sweetie._ ” Jackie hummed. “ _But promise you’ll call when you can and send some postcards or something._ ”

“I promise.” Rose smiled. “Love you mum.”

“ _Love you too._ ” Jackie hung up the phone.

“That was epic!” Rose laughed as she looked at the Doctor. “That was five billion years ago!”

“Think that’s amazing, you want to see the bill.” The Doctor smirked then he frowned. “Why the lie about traveling to Africa, I can have you back five minutes after we left.”

“I don’t know.” Rose frowned as she built on her earlier lie. “I just felt this need to say that, I guess.”

Suddenly the whole space station shook and the Doctor looked around, “That’s not supposed to happen.”

They quickly made their way to the observation gallery and Rose could almost see the thoughts race through the Doctors head.

“That wasn’t a gravity pocket. I know gravity pockets and they don’t feel like that.” The Doctor told the occupants off the room. “What do you think, Jabe? Listen to the engines. They’ve pitched up about thirty Hertz. That dodgy or what?”

“Seriously Doctor.” Rose groaned. “She is a being of nature; you really think she would know what's going on with the engine just by listening?”

“She’s right, the sound of metal doesn't make sense to me.” Jabe smiled slightly at Rose.

“Where’s the engine room?” The Doctor asked.

“I don’t know, but the maintenance duct is just behind our guest suit.” Jabe looked between the doctor and Rose. “I could show you and your wife.”

“She’s not my wife.” The Doctor denied.

“Partner?”

“No.”

“Concubine?”

“Nope.”

“Prostitute?”

“Not to interrupt this very hilarious and riveting dialog but ‘she’ is standing right here. “Rose laughed at them.

“I'm sorry, Rose.” Jabe apologized.

“That’s okay.” Rose assured her with a smile. “But should we go or?”

As they walked of Jabe pulled out a species identifier and aimed it at Rose. “Rose?”

“Huh?” Rose turned to her and Jabe snapped a photo.

“Thank you.” Jabe nodded at her.

“No problem.” Rose beamed. “Not that I know what I did.”

They arrived at the maintenance duct when Jabe stopped with a “That’s odd.”

“What's odd?” The Doctor asked as he soniced the door to the maintenance duct.

“Nothing, let’s solve one problem at a time, yes?” Jabe told him.

“Sounds like a plan.” The Doctor agreed and the three of them walked into the duct.

“Who’s in charge of Platform One?” Rose asked before the Doctor could. “Is there a Captain or what?”

“There’s just the Steward and the staff.” Jabe told them. “All the rest is controlled by the metal mind.”

“You mean the computer?” The Doctor clarified. “But who controls that?”

“Skynet.” Rose smirked at the Doctor who chuckled.

“What is Skynet?” Jabe looked between Rose and the Doctor.

“It’s a computer program from an old Earth movie called Terminator.” Rose explained. “Basically, Skynet was created as a defense program but gained sentience and decided to wipe out humanity.”

“Oh.” Jabe hummed then she told them who controlled the computer on Platform One. “The Corporation. They move Platform One from one artistic event to another.”

“But there’s no one from the Corporation on board.” The Doctor hummed.

“They're not needed. This facility is purely automatic.” Jabe said. “It’s the height of the Alpha class. Nothing can go wrong.”

“Murphy’s law.” Rose muttered quietly, not knowing that the Doctor could hear her.

“Unsinkable?” The Doctor looked at Jabe.

“If you like.” Jabe bowed her head in a small nod. “The nautical metaphor is appropriate.”

“You're telling me.” The Doctor hummed. “I was on board another ship once. They said that I was unsinkable. I ended up clinging to an iceberg. It wasn't half cold. So, what you're saying is, if we get in trouble there's no one to help us out?”

“I'm afraid not.” Jabe sighed softly.

“Fantastic.” The Doctor beamed.

“I don’t understand.” Jabe looked confused. “In what why is that fantastic?”

“Ignore him.” Rose patted Jabe on the arm. “He's a bit weird.”

“So, tell me, Jabe, what’s a tree like you doing on a place like this?” The Doctor asked as they walked.

“Respect for the Earth.” Jabe answered.

“Oh, come on. Everyone on this platform's worth zillions.” The Doctor scoffed.

“Well, perhaps it's a case of having to be seen at the right occasions.” Jabe admitted.

“Wait, is this basically politics?” Rose asked shocked.

“More along the lines of in case your share prices drop?” The Doctor had started by explaining to Rose but then he had turned towards Jabe. “I know you lot. You've got massive forests everywhere, roots everywhere, and there's always money in land.”

“All the same, we respect the Earth as family. So many species evolved from that planet. Mankind is only one. I'm another.” Jabe told them. “My ancestors were transplanted from the planet down below, and I'm a direct descendant of the tropical rainforest.”

“That is pretty amazing.” Rose hummed wide eyed.

“Excuse me.” The Doctor scanned a door panel marked ‘Welcome to Platform One.’

“And what about your ancestry, Doctor? Perhaps you could tell a story or two. Perhaps a man only enjoys trouble when there's nothing else left. I scanned you earlier. The metal machine had trouble identifying your species. It refused to admit your existence.” Jabe looked at the Doctor with something close to awe. “And even when it named you, I wouldn't believe it. But it was right. I know where you're from. Forgive me for intruding, but it's remarkable that you even exist. I just wanted to say how sorry I am.” She put her hand on his arm, and the Doctor put his hand over hers. A tear dropped from his eye, then he got the door open.

“Time and War, War and Time, all mixed together.” Rose murmured.

“What did you say?” The Doctor looked at Rose.

“I didn’t say anything.” Rose looked at him confused.

“You talked about war.” Jabe told her.

“No, I didn’t.” Rose denied.

The Doctor looked at her intrigued as he finally got the door to the engine room open. The three of them stepped out on a catwalk that ran through a series of very large fans.

“Is it me, or is it a bit nippy?” The Doctor asked as he scanned a panel. “Fair do's, though, that's a great bit of air conditioning. Sort of nice and old fashioned. Bet they call it retro. Gotcha!”

“What the hell?!” Rose jumped back as a metal spider scuttled out and up the wall.

“Is it part of the retro?” Jabe wondered, sounding uncertain.

“I don't think so. Hold on.” The Doctor aimed his screwdriver at the spider, then Jabe lassoed it. “Hey, nice liana.”

“Thank you. We're not supposed to show them in public.” Jabe admitted quietly.

“Don't worry, I won't tell anybody and neither will Rose.” The Doctor promised as Rose nodded in agreement. “Now then, who's been bringing their pets on board?”

“What does it do?” Rose and Jabe asked at the same time making them smile at each other.

“Sabotage.” The Doctor said darkly and then the computer was kind enough to remind them that the Earth would die in ten minutes. “And the temperature's about to rocket. Come on.”

Smoke were filling the corridor and a glare were coming through a small glass panel in the door. The little assistants had gathered around the door when the three of them arrived.

“Hold on. Get back.” The Doctor ordered and did the sonic thing on another small panel.

“Sun filter rising. Sun filter rising.” The computer informed them mechanically.

“Is the Steward in there?!” Jabe asked horrified.

“You can smell him. Hold on, there's another sun filter programmed to descend.” The Doctor said before running off.

Rose and Jabe looked at each other and with a nod decided to go to the Observation gallery to calm down the other guests.

“The metal machine confirms.” Jabe told the others. “The spider devices have infiltrated the whole of Platform One.”

“How’s that possible? Our private rooms are protected by a code wall.” Cassandra shirked.

“Summon the Steward.” The Moxx ordered.

“I'm afraid the Steward is dead.” Jabe informed them sadly.

“Who killed him?” The Moxx demanded to know.

“This whole event was sponsored by the Face of Boe. He invited us.” Cassandra accused. “Talk to the face. Talk to the face.”

“You know, the quicker you are at pointing fingers at others the more suspect you are.” Rose glared at Cassandra.

“Easy way of finding out.” The Doctor said as he took center stage. “Someone brought their little per on board. Let’s send him back to master.”

The Doctor put the spider down and Rose shuddered, she hated spiders. It quickly scuttled of to Cassandra and scanned her before scampering of towards the black gowned group.

“The Adherents of the Repeated Meme.” Cassandra gasped overly dramatic. “J’accuse!”

“That’s all very well, and really kind of obvious, but if you stop and think about it.” The Doctor walked over to the Adherents and ripped the leaders’ arm of when it tried to hit him. “A Repeated Meme is just an idea and that’s all they are, an idea.” The Doctor pulled one of the wires out of the arm and the Adherents collapsed. “Remote controlled Droids. Nice little cover for the real troublemaker.” He gave the spider a little nudge with his foot. “Gon, Jimbo, go home.”

“I bet you were the school swot and never got kissed.” Cassandra sneered as the spider stopped by her. “At arms!”

“What are you going to do?” The Doctor raised his hands to his chest in mock fear as Cassandra’s attendants aimed their sprayers at him. “Moisturize me?”

“With acid. Oh, you're to late, anyway. My spiders have control of the mainframe.” Cassandra smirked, or at least she sounded like she smirked, she was just a piece of skin with make up on it. “Oh, you all carried them as gifts, tax free, past every code wall. I'm not just a pretty face.”

“She’s blind, isn’t she?” Rose muttered and was shocked to hear a deep chuckle in her head, she turned her head and saw the Face of Boe winking at her.

“Sabotaging a ship while you're still inside it?” The Doctor looked unimpressed. “How stupid is that?”

“I’d hoped to manufacture a hostage situation with myself as one of the victims.” Cassandra admitted. “The compensation would have been enormous.”

“Five billion years and it still comes down to money.” The Doctor said disappointed.

“Do you think it’s sheep looking like this?” Cassandra glared. “Flatness costs a fortune.”

“Arrest her, the infidel!” The Moxx squeaked.

“Oh, shut it, pixie.” Cassandra retorted. “I've still got my final option.”

“Earth Death in three minutes.” The computer reminded.

“And here it comes. You're just as useful dead, all of you. I have shares in your rival companies and they'll triple in price as soon as you're dead. My spiders are primed and ready to destroy the safety systems. How did that old Earth song go? Burn, baby, burn.” Cassandra said darkly.

“Then you’ll burn with us.” Jabe called out and Rose almost whistled the Mockingjay tune from the Hunger Games.

“Oh, I'm so sorry. I know the use of teleportation is strictly forbidden, but I'm such a naughty thing. Spider, activate!” Cassandra called out the order. “Forcefields gone with the planet about to explode. At least it'll be quick. Just like my fifth husband. Oh, shame on me.”

“Safety system failing.” The computer said.

“Bye, bye, darlings.” Cassandra chuckled. “Bye, bye, my darlings.”

“Heat level rising.” The computer told them.

“Reset the computer.” The Moxx said.

“Only the Steward would know how.” Jabe told him.

“No. We can do it by hand. There must be a system restore switch. Rose, Jabe, come on. You lot, just chill.” The Doctor swanned out of the room.

They arrived at the engine room just as the computer said, “Heat levels critical.”

“Oh,” The Doctor groaned indicating towards the other side of the fans which were spinning very fast. “And guess where the switch is.”

_“Heat level rising. Heat level rising.”_

The Doctor pulled a leaver and the fans slowed down but as soon as he let go they started to spin faster again.

_“External temperature: five thousand degrees.”_

Rose grabbed the leaver and pulled it down before Jabe culled, she really wanted Jabe to survive and she was going to do her best to make that happen.

“Rose…” The Doctor looked at her with worry.

“Stop wasting time, Time Lord.” Jabe ordered with a smirk.

_“Heat level rising. Heat level rising.”_

“Get out of here, Jabe, I don’t want you to suffer from the heat.” Rose told her as she felt the heat from the leaver.

“If I stay away from the walls and avoid touching anything, I should be fine.” Jabe reassured her with a kind smile. “I'm not leaving you here, alone.”

_“Heat levels critical. Heat levels critical.”_

The Doctor looked back at Jabe and Rose and then times his run past the second fan. Rose gritted her teeth in pain as she felt her hands burn and then she screamed as the leaver goes up again, taking the skin of her palms with it.

Jabe caught her as she collapsed to the floor in pain and then the two of them looked over just as the Doctor walk past the last fan and pull the reset breaker, calling out, “Raise shields!”

The Doctor ran over as Jabe helped Rose to her feet. Rose was shaking in pain with tears in the corners of her eye but she managed to smile at the Doctor, “Left it a little close there, huh?”

“I live on the edge.” The Doctor smiled back. “Are you okay?”

“Stupid question.” Rose chuckled.

The three of them returned to the observation gallery, with Jabe helping Rose along by letting her lean on her and leading her.

“I'm full of ideas, I'm bristling with them.” The Doctor ranted as he paced in the observation gallery. “Idea number one; teleportation through five thousand degrees needs some kind of feed. Idea number two; this feed must be hidden nearby.” He walked over to a display case and smashed the so-called ostrich egg to reveal a small device. “Idea number three; if you're as clever as me, then a teleportation feed can be reversed.”

“Oh, you should have seen their little alien faces.” The sound of her voice came through before Cassandra appeared back in the room again. “Oh.”

“The last human.” The Doctor sneered.

“So you passed my little test. Bravo.” Cassandra fumbled. “This makes you eligible to join, er, the Human Club.”

“People have died, Cassandra.” The Doctor almost snarled. “You murdered them.”

“It depends on your definition of people, and that's enough of a technicality to keep your lawyers dizzy for centuries. Take me to court, then, Doctor, and watch me smile and cry and flutter…” Cassandra started to simper.

“And creak?” The Doctor interrupted with a smirk.

“And what?” Cassandra asked.

“Creak.” The Doctor said. “You're creaking.”

“What? Ah! I'm drying out! Oh, sweet heavens. Moisturize me, moisturize me! Where are my surgeons? My lovely boys! It's too hot!” Cassandra called out.

“You raised the temperatures.” The Doctor informed her.

“Have pity! Moisturize me! Oh, oh, Doctor. I'm sorry. I'll do anything.” Cassandra begged.

“Karma comes for everyone in the end.” Rose murmured.

“Everything has its time and everything dies.” The Doctor looked at Cassandra with cold eyes.

“I'm too young!” Cassandra went splat.

A few hours later only Rose and the Doctor were left, looking at the asteroids that where once the earth as they floated past the red giant Sun.

“The end of the Earth. It's gone. We were too busy saving ourselves. No one saw it go. All those years, all that history, and no one was even looking, and you know what?” Rose turned towards the Doctor. “I wouldn’t change a thing.”

“You wouldn’t?” He looked at her in surprise.

“If we or rather you, hadn’t been here, these people would be dead and Cassandra would have gotten away with murder.” Rose smiled at him. “And me losing the skin of my palms is a price I would gladly pay again.”

“Come on, I have an infirmary in the Tardis.” The Doctor smiled at her in wonder.

The Doctor led her back to the Tardis and then through several corridors until they reached what Rose would assume was the infirmary.

“Place your hands in here, palms up.” The Doctor gestured to a weird looking box. “It will heal your hands.”

“Thank you.” Rose smiled and did as instructed. “Hey Doctor, what you told Jabe about the unsinkable ship.”

“Yeah?” The Doctor leaned against the wall opposite her.

“I figured you meant Titanic.” At the Doctors nod, Rose continued. “Does that mean we can’t go on the Titanic? Because you meeting yourself would cause a paradox or something, right?”

“That’s is completely right.” The Doctor looked impressed. “How do you know about paradoxes?”

“I love Sci-fi movies and tv-series.” Rose admitted with a blush.

Suddenly the box beeped making Rose jump.

“You can pull your hands out now.” The Doctor smirked at her.

“That’s amazing.” Rose looked at her flawless hands, even the scar she had noticed on the back off her hand was gone.

“Rose, this gift you have of knowing things, how long have you had it?” The doctor asked softly after a while.

“I don’t know.” Rose shrugged. “Ever since I can remember.”

“Can I try something?” The Doctor walked closer to her. “I want to look through your mind and see if I can find what is going on.”

“Okay…” Rose said calmly while she was freaking out on the inside. What if he found out about her basically body snatching Rose?! “What do I need to do?”

“Just stand there, relax and close your eyes.” The Doctor placed his hands on her face. After around five minutes the Doctor pulled back with a confounded look.

“What's going on?” Rose asked worried.

“I can’t get into you mind.” The Doctor murmured. “My people are basically touch telepaths and reading others minds is something we are masters off. I have never encountered someone, least of all a human, that I couldn’t read.”

“Is there something wrong with me?” Rose asked softly even though she was glad that he could find out about her body snatching.

“No, absolutely not.” The Doctor told her. “But how sure are you that you are human?”

“Of course, I'm human!” Rose protested. “I was born on Earth and my mum is human and so was my dad.”

“Do you remember the picture Jabe took of you in the maintenance duct?” The Doctor asked.

“The one where she muttered about something being odd?” Rose clarified.

“Yes.” The Doctor nodded. “What was odd was that the device couldn’t identify your species, it was inconclusive.”

“So, what am I?” Rose murmured, sounding both sad and slightly worried.

“I don’t know but that doesn't really matter, does it?” The Doctor smiled at her. “You're still Rose Tyler, aren't you?”

“Definitely!” Rose agreed with a laugh.

**A/N: Hope you guys liked the chapter :)**

**Thanks for reading <3**


	3. The Unquiet Dead

**Disclaimer: I don’t own Doctor Who, sadly enough :(**

Rose was laughing brightly in happiness as they Tardis flew through time in jerky movements. This was the most amazing thing she had ever done in her entire life.

“Hold that one down!” The Doctor ordered her as he pointed at a button.

“I'm holding this one down.” Rose indicated towards the switch he had told her to hold down earlier.

“Well, hold them both down.” The Doctor chuckled.

“Oki doki then.” Rose stretched her leg out to push the button down with her foot.

“I promised you a time machine and that’s what you're getting.” The Doctor jumped back from the console and beamed at her. Now, you’ve seen the future, let’s have a look at the past. How does 1860 sound?”

“Sounds great.” Rose smiled at him. “What happened in 1860?”

“I don’t know, let’s find out.” The Doctor laughed. “Hold on, here we go!”

The Tardis materialized at the end of a snowy street, the landing was rough making Rose and the Doctor fall to the floor.

“That was awesome!” Rose laughed.

“Are you alright?” The Doctor asked as he got up.

“Nothing broken.” Rose smiled at him. “So where in 1860 are we?”

“Earth, Naples, December 24th, 1860.” The Doctor read of a screen.

“You brought me to Christmas?” Rose looked at him with wide sparkling eyes.

“All yours.” The Doctor nodded.

“Being able to travel like you do must be amazing.” Rose murmured. “All the history, all the people.”

“It’s not a bad life.” The doctor shrugged.

“Better with two.” Rose beamed at him and made her way to the door. “Come on, then.”

“Hey.” The Doctor’s voice stopped her from leaving. “Where do you think you're going?”

“1860.” Rose smiled.

“Go out dressed like that, you'll start a riot, Barbarella.” The Doctor looked at her skinny jeans and crop top. “There’s a wardrobe through there. First left, second right, third on the left, go straight ahead, under the stairs, past the bins, fifth door on your left. Hurry up!”

Rose hurried away but when she came to the third corridor, she became uncertain which way she was supposed to go and stopped to try to think. Was it left and straight past some bins or…?

_‘Third on the left’_ A musical voice whispered in her mind.

Rose was confused but decided to follow the voice, what’s the worst thing that could happen?

As she entered the indicated door the voice whispered, _‘Straight ahead under the stairs’_

Rose continued to follow the voice until she found herself in the biggest wardrobe she had ever seen in her entire life! It was flipping huge! There were several levels filled with clothes and a spiral staircase in the back to take you either up or down.

“But what should I wear?” Rose murmured out loud to herself.

_‘This way’_ The voice whispered again and Rose felt a sort of pull in her that led her to a beautiful 1860 dress on the third level.

“Thank you.” Rose called out.

Her response was a quiet laugh and a feeling like of gratefulness and something more, something like a mother’s warm embrace.

After Rose had put on the under dress and the proper dress, only having slight problem with the corset, she looked at herself in the mirror. The dress was dark blue with black and silver details, full skirt with a long-sleeved fitted bodice. The dress was matched with a black shawl with silver embroidery on the back and black, high heeled boots.

She quickly braided her hair with blue ribbons and made it into a bun to hide the blue in her hair. As Rose made her way back to the control room the voice whispered directions in her head, which was a really good thing to Rose would have been wandering for days.

“Blimey!” The Doctor said as he saw her.

“Don’t laugh.” Rose looked down in embarrassment.

“You look beautiful, considering.” The Doctor jumped up from where he had been working under the console.

“Considering what?” Rose asked with a chuckle.

“That you're human.” The Doctor smirked.

“Thank you.” Rose kissed him on the cheek and made her way to the door. “You coming?”

“Yeah.” The doctor touched his cheek in a daze, then he shook it off and followed Rose outside. “Ready for this? Here we go. History.”

Together the Doctor and Rose walked through the town in the light snow fall with Rose looking around with wonder in her eyes.

“This is amazing!” Rose smiled brightly at the Doctor.

“I got the flight a bit wrong.” The doctor said as he read a newspaper.

“It doesn't matter.” Rose smiled.

“It’s not 1860.” The Doctor murmured. “It’s 1869.”

“I don’t care.” Rose reassured him.

“And it’s not Naples.” The Doctor told her.

“So? It’s still the past.” Rose chirped.

“It’s Cardiff.” The Doctor hesitantly said.

“Doctor,” Rose placed a gentle hand on his cheek and smiled at him. “I really don’t care.”

“Well, that’s good.” The Doctor smiled in relief that she wasn’t mad or disapointed.

“Doctor…” Rose murmured hesitantly, wondering how to ask about the directions she got from the musical voice inside the Tardis.

The Doctor opened his mouth to encourage her when they heard several screams, “That’s more like it!”

The Doctor and Rose ran towards the screams and while the doctor ran inside the theater Rose stayed outside, remembering Sneed and Gwyneth.

“What are you doing?!” Rose ran over to where Gwyneth and Sneed were putting a body in a horse drawn carriage.

“Oh, it’s a tragedy, miss. Don’t worry yourself. Me and the master will deal with it.” Gwyneth said as she brought up a handkerchief to her face. “The fact is, this poor lady’s been taken with the brain fever and we have to get her to the infirmary.”

“I know a dead body when I see one.” Rose huffed and did that just make her sound like a serial killer?

Suddenly someone, most likely Sneed, but a cloth over Rose’s mouth. She struggled as best she could but felt herself become weaker and everything turned black.

Sometime later Rose woke up in a room with a coffin, which wasn’t creepy at all, note the sarcasm. She quickly sat up and walked over to the door and noticed that it was locked, “Typical.”

Rose turned around and saw the dead not so dead man in the coffin sit up and look at her, “I hate zombies!”

She looked around the room to find something to fight the zombie dude. Rose saw a long metal rod at the side of the room and grabbed it, then she made her way back to the door to have her back to it as she knew the Doctor would come get her.

“Let me out!” Rose kicked at the door as she saw the old woman reanimate in her coffin. “Open the door and let me out for fuck sakes! I don’t want to be eaten by zombies!”

Rose swung the metal rod and hit the zombie dude over the head making him stumble back a few steps but her quickly rightened himself again. The dead woman grabbed the metal rod just as Rose was about to swing it again and the zombie dude slapped her across the face, making her stumbled against the door.

The zombie dude grabbed her just as the Doctor kicked the door in and pulled Rose away from him. “I think this is my dance.”

“It’s a prank. It must be.” The man who came with the Doctor, declared. “We’re under some mesmeric influence.”

“No we’re not. The dead are walking.” The Doctor sounded delighted. “Hi.”

“Who’s your friend?” Rose asked the Doctor.

“Charles Dickens.” The Doctor smiled at her.

“Okay.” Rose chuckled and turned to the author. “An honor to meet you.”

“My name’s the Doctor.” The Doctor introduced himself to the dead. “Who are you, then? What do you want?”

“Failing. Open the rift. We’re dying.” The zombie dude spoke in an eerily voice. “Trapped in this form. Cannot sustain. Help us. Ahhh!”

Blue gas leaves the dead woman and the zombie dude and returned to the gas lamp and the corpses collapsed.

A while later Gwyneth was pouring tea as Rose berated Sneed with one hell of a glare. “First of all, you drug me, then you kidnap me and don’t think I didn’t feel your hands having a quick wander, you dirty old man!”

“He did what?!” The Doctor stood up straighter as he glared at Sneed.

“I won’t be spoken to like this!” Sneed protested.

“You will sit down and take it like a man!” Rose declared darkly. “I have every right to talk to you like this, you stuck me in a room full of dead people and left me to die!”

“It’s not my fault. It’s this house. It always had a reputation. Haunted.” Sneed defended himself. “But I never had much bother until a few months back and then the stiffs…the, er, dearly departed started getting restless.”

“Tommyrot.” Dickens scoffed.

“You witnessed it. Can’t keep the beggars down, sir. they walk. And it’s the queerest thing, but they hang on to scraps.” Sneed explained. “One old fellow who used to be a sexton almost walked into his own memorial service. Juts like the old lady going to your performance, sir, just as she planned.”

“Morbid fancy.” Dickens was still in denial.

“Oh, Charles, you were there.” The Doctor told him.

“I saw nothing but an illusion.” Dickens declared.

“If your going to deny it, don’t waste my time.” The Doctor looked at him unimpressed. “What about the gas?”

“That’s new, sir.” Sneed said. “Never seen anything like that.”

“Means it’s getting stronger, the rift’s getting bigger and something’s sneaking through.” The Doctor hummed thoughtfully.

“The rift in space and time, taking and dropping and misplacing.” Rose murmured while she looked out the window.

“Rose?” The Doctor walked up to her and placed his hands on her cheeks while looking her in the eyes. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I'm fine.” Rose focused on him with a smile all the while thinking to herself about why she sometimes said or did things without meaning to. “Why wouldn’t I be?”

“If you are sure.” The Doctor murmured as he looked at her with worry and intrigue, then he turned towards the rest of the room. “The rift usually causes ghost stories, most of the time.”

“That’s how I got the house so cheap. Stories going back generations.” Sneed said just as dickens left while slamming the door. “Echoes in the dark, queer songs in the air and this feeling like a shadow passing over your soul. Mind you, truth be told, it’s been good for business. Just what people expect from a gloomy old trade like mine.”

Rose left to help Gwyneth, leaving the men to talk amongst themselves. She started the washing up as Gwyneth lit a gas lamp.

“Please, miss, you shouldn’t be helping. It’s not right.” Gwyneth protested

“Sneed works you to death, the least I can to is help out a little.” Rose smiled. “How much do you get paid?”

“Eight pounds a year, miss.” Gwyneth said timidly.

“How much?” Rose asked in shock, that’s basically slavery.

“I know, I would have been happy with six.” Gwyneth mistook her shock.

“So, did you go to school or what?” Rose wondered, she liked Gwyneth even though she though she should grow a back bone.

“Of course, I did.” Gwyneth huffed. “What do you think I am, an urchin? I went every Sunday, nice and proper.”

“Once a week?” Rose almost felt jealous bit remembered that she rather go to school in her own time than back here.

“We did sums and everything.” Gwyneth nodded. “To be honest, I hated every second.”

“Me too.” Rose chuckled in agreement.

“Don’t tell anyone, but one week, I didn’t go and ran on the heath all on my own.” Gwyneth confided in a whisper.

“I did plenty of that.” Rose smirked and decided to, not lie exactly, but bend the truth a little. “Me and a friend used to watch the young men work and if we were lucky, they would take of their shirts on the hot days.”

“Well, I don’t know much about, miss.” Gwyneth blushed and went back to work.

“There must be someone.” Rose murmured. “Pretty girl like you.”

“Well, there is one lad.” Gwyneth admitted slowly with a small smile. “The butcher’s boy. He comes by every Tuesday. Such a lovely smile on him.”

“I like a nice smile.” Rose nodded with a smile. “A nice smile and kind eyes.”

“I guess your right.” Gwyneth hummed with a blush.

“Give the butcher’s boy a cup of tea, that’s a start.” Rose encouraged.

“But what about Mr. Sneed?” Gwyneth asked. “He might need me.”

“You need more in your life then him, Gwyneth.” Rose looked at her.

“But he has been so kind to me, he took me in when I lost my mom and dad to the flu when I was twelve.” Gwyneth explained.

“I'm sorry for your loss.” Rose murmured.

“Thank you, miss.” Gwyneth smiled at her. “But I’ll be with them again, one day, sitting with them in paradise. I shall be so blessed. They're waiting for me.”

“That’s sound beautiful.” Rose hummed, she had never believed in god or paradise or anything like that but she wasn’t bothered by those who did.

“But you, you have the stars in you.” Gwyneth looked at Rose with wide eyes. “You are a part of the universe just as the universe is a part of you.”

“What?” Rose felt a little shocked. Was she talking about her being from another reality or whatever or something else?

“The darkness, the big bad wolf.” Gwyneth stumbled back a little. “I'm sorry, miss.”

“It’s all right.” Rose assured her.

“I can’t help it. Ever since I was a little girl, my mam said I had the sight. She told me to hide it.” Gwyneth explained.

“But it’s getting stronger, more powerful, is that right?” the Doctor spoke up from the doorway.

“All the time, sir.” Gwyneth said as she looked at him. “Every night, voices in my head.”

“You grew up on top of the rift. You are a part of it, you're the key.” The Doctor told her.

“I've tried to make sense of it, sir.” Gwyneth looked at the Doctor. “Consulted with spiritualists, table rappers, all sorts.”

“Well, that should help.” The Doctor hummed. “You can show us what to do.”

“What to do where, sir?” Gwyneth asked softly.

“We’re going to have a séance.” The Doctor beamed in excitement making Rose chuckle.

Half an hour later everyone were gathered around a table in the living room.

“This is how Madam Mortlock summons those from the Land of Mists, down in Bute Town.” Gwyneth explained. “Come, we must all join hands.”

“I can’t take part of this.” Dickens went to stand.

“Humbug? Come on, open mind.” The Doctor said to him.

“Are you a man or a mouse?” Rose asked, knowing that the easiest way to make a man do anything was to threaten his manliness and masculinity.

“This girl knows nothing.” Dickens huffed.

“Now, don’t antagonize her.” The Doctor smiled at Gwyneth. “I love a happy medium.2

“I can’t believe you just said that.” Rose giggled.

“Come on, we might need you.” The Doctor said and as Dickens sat down between Rose and Gwyneth he smiled. “Good man. Now, Gwyneth, reach out.”

“Speak to us. Are you there?” Gwyneth called out hesitantly. “Spirits, come. Speak to us that we may relive your burden.”

“Can you hear that?” Rose asked as she started to hear whispers.

“Nothing can happen.” Dickens scoffed. “This is sheer folly.”

“Just because you keep denying it doesn’t mean it’s not real.” Rose glared at him. “And look at her.”

“I see them.” Gwyneth looked pale and wide eyed as gas tendrils drifted above their heads. “I feel them.”

“They can’t get through the rift.” Rose murmured, somehow knowing what the gas people were saying.

The Doctor looked at her with a small smile before turning to Gwyneth. “Gwyneth, it’s not controlling you, you're controlling it. Now, look deep. Allow them through.”

“I can’t.” Gwyneth denied.

“Yes, you can.” The Doctor encouraged and Rose nodded in agreement. “We have faith in you, Gwyneth. Make the link.”

“Yes.” Gwyneth gasped as people outlined in blue appeared behind her.

“Great God!” Sneed stared wide eyed. “Spirits from the other side.”

“The other side of the universe.” The Doctor Corrected him.

“Pity us. Pity the Gelth.” The figures speak up with a childlike voice and Gwyneth spoke in tandem with them. “There is so little time. Help us.”

“What do you want us to do?” The Doctor asked.

“The rift. Take the girl to the rift. Make the bridge.” The Gelth told them.

“What for?” Rose asked before the Doctor could.

“We are so very few, Golden Rose.” The Gelth turned to her. “The last of our kind. We face extinction.”

“Why, what happened?” The Doctor asked even as he felt very curious about the Gelth addressing Rose directly and calling her ‘The Golden Rose’.”

“Once we had a physical from like you, but then the war came.” The Gelth murmured.

“War? What war?” The Doctor looked a little freaked out.

“The Time War. The whole universe convulsed. The Time War raged.” The Gelth explained. “Invisible to smaller species but devastating to higher forms. Our bodies wasted away. We’re trapped in this gaseous state.”

“That’s why you need the corpses.” The Doctor exclaimed.

“We want to stand tall, to feel the sunlight, to live again.” The Gelth started to plea with them. “We need a physical form and your dead are abandoned. They're going to waste. Give them to us.”

“But we can’t.” Rose said firmly.

“Why not?” The Doctor demanded.

“Because…” Rose started to say but the Doctor interrupted her.

“Because it’s not decent? Not polite?” The Doctor glared at her. “It could save their lives.”

“Open the rift. Let the Gelth through. We’re dying. Help us. Pity the Gelth.” The Gelth begged before going back to gas form and going back inside the lamps, making Gwyneth collapse across the table.

“Gwyneth?” Rose carefully helped her sit up. “Are you okay?”

“It’s all true.” Dickens mumbled.

A little while later, Gwyneth had been laid down on a chaise longue to rest.

“Take it slowly.” Rose cautioned. “You just rest for a while.”

“But my angels, miss.” Gwyneth looked at her with wide eyes. “They came, didn’t they? They need me?”

“They do need you, Gwyneth.” The Doctor spoke up. “You're their only chance of survival.”

“Doctor, she needs to rest.” Rose said. “This whole thing took a lot out of her.”

“Well, what did you say, Doctor?” Sneed asked. “Explain it again. What are they?”

“Aliens.” The Doctor told him simply.

“Like foreigners, you mean?” Sneed tried to clarify.

“Pretty foreign, yeah.” The Doctor said and smiled when he heard Rose laugh quietly. “From up there.”

“Brecon?” Sneed looked at him.

“Close.” The Doctor nodded. “And they’ve been trying to get through from Brecon to Cardiff but the road’s blocked. Only a few can get through and even then, they are weak. They can only test drive the bodies for so long, then they have to revert to gas and hide in the pipes.”

“Which is why they need the girl.” Dickens nodded as he understood.

“That shall be Gwyneth’s choice.” Rose declared.

“She can help. Living on the rift she’s become a part of it.” The doctor looked at Rose. “She can open it up, make a bridge and let them through.”

“Incredible.” Dickens exclaimed happily. “Ghost thar are not ghosts but beings form another world, who can only exist in our world by inhabiting cadavers.”

“Good system.” The Doctor nodded. “It might work.”

“You can’t let them run around inside dead people.” Rose argued.

“Why not? It’s like recycling.” The Doctor huffed.

“Doctor, have you ever seen a zombie movie?” Rose turned towards him. “Dead bodies tend to rot, okay? And rotting bodies smell, spread deceases and fall apart.”

“Oh, I didn’t think about that.” The Doctor murmured. “I thought you just felt that it was disrespectful or something.”

“I'm an organ donor.” Rose shrugged. “My body will be used to help others survive once I'm dead, it’s not like I’ll need it by that point and this is basically the same thing.”

“You are an amazing young woman, Rose Tyler.” The Doctor smiled at her. “If we let them have the corpses they need, I’ll help them find a more permanent solution when they are safe.”

“I can definitely agree to that, but it is still Gwyneth's choice in the end.” Rose smiled back at him.

“Thank you, miss, for giving me the chance to choose for myself.” Gwyneth looked at her gratefully.

“Anytime.” Rose assured her. “And I will help you in any way that I can.”

“Doctor, what do I have to do?” Gwyneth asked.

“We need to find the rift. This house is on a weak spot, so there must be a spot that’s weaker than any other.” The Doctor thought out loud. “Mr. Sneed, what's the weakest part of this house? The place where most of the ghosts have been seen?”

“That would be the morgue.” Sneed said.

“Why doesn’t that surprise me?” Rose muttered as she followed the rest of them down to the morgue.

As they walked into the basement where the recently dead were lying under white sheets the Doctor looked around and muttered, “Urgh, talk about Bleak House.”

“Doctor, if this works will my memories change to incorporate the history of the dead walking in the 1860’ or something?” Rose asked.

“Time is always in flux and your history can be rewritten just like that.” The Doctor snapped his fingers. “But your memories won’t change, you will remember it like it was before we helped the Gelth.”

“They will kill and ravage and the human race shall be extinct.” Rose muttered softly.

“Rose?” The Doctor asked.

“Huh? Sorry it’s just…” Rose hesitated before she continued. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Doctor, I think the room is getting colder.” Dickens called out.

“I should have brought the salt.” Rose muttered.

“You’ve come to help.” The Gelth appeared under the stone archway. “Praise the Doctor and The Golden Rose. Praise them.”

“You are very brave, Gwyneth, never let anyone tell you differently.” Rose smiled at her even as she felt dread build in her stomach.

“Hurry! Please, so little time.” The Gelth said. “Pity the Gelth.”

“I’ll take you somewhere else after the transfer.” The Doctor told them. “Somewhere you can build proper bodies. This isn’t a permanent solution, all right?”

“My angels.” Gwyneth murmured. “I can help them live.”

“Okay, where’s the weak point?” The Doctor asked.

“Here, beneath the arch.” The Gelth indicated.

“Beneath the arch.” Gwyneth stepped forward and stood under the arch, inside the Gelth.

“Gwyneth.” Rose gasped.

“My angels.” Gwyneth smiled softly.

“Establish the bridge.” The Gelth told her. “Reach out to the void. Let us through!”

“Yes, I can see you.” Gwyneth gasped. “I can see you. Come!”

“Bridgehead established.” The Gelth said.

“Come to me.” Gwyneth called out. “Come to visit this world, poor lost souls.”

“It has begun. The bridge is made.” Gwyneth opened her mouth and blue gas came flying out.

“She has given herself to the Gelth. The bridge is open. We descend.” The Gelth turned from a pleasant soft blue figure to a flame red with sharp teeth while its voice deepened and hardened. “The Gelth will come through in force.”

“You said that you were few in number.” Dickens accused.

“A few billion and all of us in need of corpses.” The Gelth said as the dead started to rise.

“Gwyneth, stop this. Listen to your master.” Sneed demanded. “This has gone far enough. Stop dabbling, child, and leave these things alone, I beg of you.”

“Mr. Sneed, get back!” Rose tried to warn him but was to late as a corpse snapped his neck and a Gelth took possession of his body.

“I think it’s gone a little wrong.” The Doctor muttered.

“Just a little tiny bit.” Rose smirked at him.

“I have joined the legions of the Gelth. Come, march with us.” Gelth-Sneed said as he walked towards them.

“No.” Dickens muttered.

“We need bodies. All of you.” The Gelth declared. “Dead. The human race. Dead.”

“Gwyneth, stop them!” The Doctor called out to the woman under the arch. “Send them back now!”

“Two more bodies. Convert them. Make them vessels for the Gelth.” The lead Gelth ordered. “And The Golden Rose shall lead us to glory and power.”

Gelth-Sneed backed Rose and the Doctor up against a metal gate.

“Doctor, I can’t. I'm sorry. This new world of yours is too much for me. I'm sorry.” Dickens ran out of the basement.

“Give yourself to glory.” Gelth-Sneed said as the Doctor and Rose hid behind the metal gate, where the Gelth couldn’t reach them. “We want this world and all it’s flesh. Sacrifice your lives for the Gelth.”

“I trusted you. I pitied you!” The Doctor called out, betrayed.

“I think they played on that.” Rose murmured as she took the Doctors hand.

“We don’t want you pity.” The Gelth had a sneer in their voice. “We want this world and it’s flesh.”

“Not while I'm alive.” The Doctor declared.

“I don’t think that killing you bothers them.” Rose huffed.

“Then live no more.” The Gelth declared.

“Told you.” Rose giggled.

“I'm sorry I got you into this mess.” The Doctor looked at her sadly.

“I'm not.” Rose smiled at him. “The time I've spent with you have been the greatest experience of my life, never apologize for that.”

“I saw the fall of Troy, World War Five.” The doctor muttered as he squeezed her hand. “I pushed boxes at the Boston Tea Party. Now I'm going to die in a dungeon in Cardiff.”

“I'm not going down with out a fight.” Rose declared. “How about you?”

“Yeah.” The Doctor smiled.

“Together?” Rose asked.

“Definitely.” The Doctor pulled her hand to his face and kissed the back of it. “I'm so glad I met you.”

“Likewise.” Rose smiled with a small blush on her face.

“Doctor! Doctor!” Dickens ran in with a handkerchief over his face. “Turn off the flame, turn up the gas! Now, fill the room, all of it, now!”

“What are you doing?” The Doctor looked slightly confused.

“The gas.” Rose gasped in understanding.

“Turn it all on.” Dickens ranted. “Flood the place!”

“Brilliant!” The Doctor exclaimed.

“What else did you expect from Charles Dickens.” Rose chuckled.

“Am I correct, Doctor?” Dickens asked. “These creatures are gaseous.”

“Fill the room with gas, it’ll draw them out of the host.” The Doctor nodded. 2Suck them into the air like the poison from a wound!”

“I hope, oh Lord, I hope that this theory will be validated soon, if not immediately.” Dickens muttered as the Gelth’s left rose and the Doctor to stumble their way towards Dickens.

“Plenty more!” The Doctor ripped a gas pipe from the wall and the Gelth’s left the corpses.

“It’s working!” Dickens crowed.

“Gwyneth, send them back.” The Doctor told the young woman as he and Rose walked towards her. “They lied. They're not angels.”

“Liars?” Gwyneth sounded so childlike at that moment.

“Look at me. If your mother and father could look down and see this, they'd tell you the same. They'd give you the strength. Now send them back!” The Doctor insisted.

“They're to strong.” Gwyneth muttered.

“You are stronger than them.” Rose declared strongly even though she had a hard time breathing.

“I can't send them back. But I can hold them. Hold them in this place, hold them here. Get out.” Gwyneth took out a box of matches from her apron. “Leave this place!”

“Come on, give that to me and get out with Rose.” The Doctor held his hand out for the matches.

“Doctor, I don’t think she can.” Rose sniffed sadly and placed two fingers at Gwyneth’s neck. “I think she has been gone for a while.”

“Oh no.” The Doctor also checked for a pulse. “I’m sorry and thank you.”

The Doctor grabbed Rose’s hand and ran out, the Gelth swirled around them as they ran through the house. Rose and the Doctor managed to get out just in time for the place to blow op, throwing them both to the ground.

“She closed the rift.” The Doctor informed Dickens.

“At such a cost.” Dickens looked down. “The poor child.”

“How did you know, Rose?” The Doctor asked.

“I saw her eyes glaze over the moment she stepped into the arch but I ignored it and tried to explain it away as her just connecting with the rift.” Rose murmured with tears in her eyes. “I think I told myself that she couldn’t be dead because she was talking to us.”

“There are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy. Even for you, Doctor.” Dickens chuckled slightly.

“Gwyneth saved the world and I promise to remember her bravery and her sacrifice for the rest of my day.” Rose vowed somnolently.

“Agreed.” The Doctor murmured.

As the three of them made their way back to the Tardis, the Doctor kept looking at Rose, wondering how she could know the things she did, about the things she seemed to say without knowing and the pull he felt towards her.

“Right then, Charlie boy, I've just got to go into my, er… shed.” The Doctor fumbled a little as they arrived by the Tardis. “Won’t be long.”

“What are you going to do now?” Rose asked Dickens with a smile.

“I shall take the mail coach back to London, quite literally post-haste. This is no time for me to be on my own. I shall spend Christmas with my family and make amends to them. After all I've learned tonight, there can be nothing more vital.” Dickens grinned in happiness.

“You’ve cheered up.” The Doctor chuckled.

“Exceedingly! This morning, I thought I knew everything in the world. Now I know I've just started. All these huge and wonderful notions, Doctor. I'm inspired. I must write about them.” Dickens babbled enthusiastically.

“Do you think that’s wise?” Rose giggled, happy that he seemed so chipper.

“I shall be subtle at first. The Mystery of Edwin Drood still lacks an ending. Perhaps the killer was not the boy's uncle. Perhaps he was not of this Earth.” Dickens mused. “The Mystery of Edwin Drood and the Blue Elementals. I can spread the word, tell the truth.”

“Good luck with it. Nice to meet you. Fantastic.” The Doctor beamed.

“Goodbye and thank you.” Rose kissed him on the cheek and walked into the Tardis, leaving the Doctor to talk with Dickens.

“I'm almost disappointed that he never got to write about it though.” Rose hummed as the Doctor joined her by the Tardis consol. “That would have been an interesting read.”

“But his books last’s for billions of years.” The Doctor smiled. “People will be reading his books for as long as people read.”

“That’s great!” Rose beamed then she yawned.

“Seems like someone’s tired.” The Doctor smiled gently at her. “If you follow those lights, they will lead you to a room. I’ll just let the Tardis drift in the time vortex for a while.”

“Thank you.” Rose hugged him quickly and walked away.

Rose entered a beautiful room done in mix of light and dark. She closed the door behind her and sank down to the floor with her back against it. Why was she forgetting the details of the tv-show?

She was freaking out and she felt a panic attack creeping up on her. Forgetting things about the tv-show was one thing, but forgetting details from her life as Alex was just too much. It was like she was assimilating or something and until now she had gone around hoping that this was just a coma induced dream or something.

But it seemed like she really had taken over Rose’s body. Had she killed the real Rose! Erased her from existence!

Rose gabbed her head and tried her best to breath but nothing was working, it was like the corset was getting tighter and tighter, so she pulled it and the dress off, leaving her in her almost cheer underdress.

There was a rushing sound in her ears and black spots in her vision when suddenly there were two hands on the side of her face.

“Rose!” The Doctor looked at her with worry. “I need you to breath!”

His worry grew when nothing seemed to help so he did the only thing he could think off and pulled Rose into his arms to rest her head against his chest. Luckily the sound of hist hearts beating seemed to calm her down and she started to breathe again.

“Thank you.” The Doctor heard Rose whisper softly before she passed out from exhaustion.

He gently lifted her up and placed her on the bed and pulled the covers over her. When the Tardis had urged him to go to her with an insistence he had never felt before he had been confused but when he found her in the grips of a panic attack his confusion had turned to worry.

The Doctor slowly walked towards the console room after softly closing the door to Rose’s room. He thought about Rose, trying to figure her out, she was so different from most people he met, very open minded and bright, not just the smart sort of bright but her as a whole almost glowed.

He sat down in one of the chairs by the console and spent the rest of the night thinking about Rose, her abilities and the name the Gelth had called her ‘The Golden Rose’. And what had Gwyneth meant when she said Rose was part of the universe and the universe was a part of Rose?

**A/N: I'm not really happy with this chapter :(**

**But I hope you liked it and thanks for reading <3**


	4. Aliens of London

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, sadly enough :(

Rose woke up the next morning, or whatever counted as ‘morning’ in the Tardis, and sat up with a yawn. At first, she didn’t remember what had happened yesterday but then it hit her like a truck. The forgetting details of the tv-show and her life, her panic attack and the Doctor coming to her aid, letting her listen to his hearts beat to help her calm down.

_“Calm, my wolf, calm.”_ The musical voice whispered in her head again.

Rose decided to listen and took a deep breath and decide not to panic and to take things as they came at her, she always had been good at adapting. She wondered if she should write down everything she remembered from her last life in a journal or something?

She stretched and got out of bed, she walked over to one of the doors in her room and opened it. In side there was outfit consisting of a plaid coat, tight faux leather pants, a white short hoddie that ended around her belly button and white sneakers hanging out for her.

“Oh, I really like this outfit.” Rose muttered to herself.

_“You're welcome.”_ The voice giggled in her mind.

Rose decided that she needed a shower first, still smelling like the gas from the Gelth thing. Not knowing where the bathroom was, she looked around the room until she saw another door, that she was convinced wasn’t there earlier, and walked over to it.

The bathroom she stepped into was absolutely stunning; the floor were made up of black and white tiles that matched well with the white walls, on her left there were a double sink made out of wood with a granite countertop, on the right stood the toilet and beside that there was a tub, while there was a glass shower on the left side in the corner.

“It’s beautiful.” Rose gasped and she felt like someone hugged her in gratitude.

Rose quickly took a shower and put on the outfit, but deciding against the coat, then she made her way to the console room to find the Doctor.

“Good whatever time of day it is.” Rose smiled at the Doctor.

“Rose.” The Doctor beamed back at her.

“Doctor, there is something I've been wondering about.” Rose looked at him seriously.

“And what’s that?” The Doctor looked back at her.

“Who is that musical voice in my head that has been helping me?” Rose blurted out quickly.

“Musical voice?” The Doctor asked wide eyed.

“Yeah, it started when I got a little lost on the way to the wardrobe when we were in 1869 and then earlier this morning when I almost had another panic attack.” Rose explained.

“You can hear the Tardis in your head?” The shock on the Doctors face was almost comical.

_“It would seem so, my Doctor.”_ The musical voice whispered in Rose’s and the Doctor’s head.

“No wonder you could tell me the exact way to the wardrobe.” Rose laughed as she looked at the center console.

“You can actually hear her.” The Doctor murmured.

_“Of course, my wolf can hear me.”_ The Tardis scoffed with something close to a chuckle.

“Why do you call me your wolf?” Rose asked softly.

_“Everything will be known… in time.”_ The Tardis hummed.

“You can hear her!” The Doctor grabbed Rose around the waist and spun her around in happiness. None of his companions had ever heard the Tardis clearly before, sure some of the had heard a soft hum in the back of their head but that was is.

Rose laughed and hugged the Doctor back, not knowing why he was happy but felt glad that he was. After a while the Doctor let her go and started to flit around the console.

“Where do you wanna go next?” The Doctor beamed at her. “Future? Past? Another planet?”

“I think we need to go and see my mom.” Rose said with a far-off look. “I don’t know why…”

The Doctor walked up to her, “Is it one of your ‘just knowing’ feelings?”

“Yeah, it’s like there is this pull inside me that says we need to go and see my mom.” Rose hummed softly.

“To the Powel estate we go, the day after we left.” The Doctor smiled even as he felt worried that Rose would like to stay with her mother.

The Doctor landed the Tardis outside where Rose’s mother lived, “And we have landed.”

Rose walked towards the door but stopped and turned towards the Doctor. “You coming, or what?”

“Oh, right.” The Doctor followed her with a confused look.

“Mum, you home?” Rose called out as she walked into the flat.

“Rose!” Jackie attacked her with a tight hug. “You're home.”

“Yeah, I did say that I would come back.” Rose hugged back.

“You’ve been gone for a year!” Now Jackie sounded slightly pissed. “No phone call, no text, not even a bloody letter!”

“I'm sorry mum.” Rose said even as she looked at the Doctor with annoyance. “But for me it didn’t feel like a year, I have constantly learnt and met new people that I've been able to help.”

“Is this your boyfriend?” Jackie turned to look at the Doctor. “Isn't he a little old for you?”

“Mum, this is Doctor Christopher Smith.” Rose introduced while begging the Doctor to play along with her eyes. “He was one of the lead Doctors on the mission.”

“Nice to meet you, Miss. Tyler.” The Doctor smiled at her.

“You look familiar.” Jackie murmured but seemed to shake it off to turn back to Rose. “It’s so good to have you back.”

“I've missed you mum.” Rose smiled, and she had missed Jackie even if Jackie wasn’t, technically, her mother, but whatever.

Around an hour later Rose walked up to the roof to find the Doctor gazing out over London.

“You brought me home a year late.” Rose pointed a finger at the Doctor.

“That was an accident.” The Doctor defended himself. “It wasn’t even an interesting year, so you didn’t miss anything important.”

“We’re just lucky that I told her that I was going traveling when I called her from Platform One.” Rose chuckled.

“Your gift…” The Doctor hesitated a little. “How does it work?”

“I don’t really know.” Rose shrugged and leaned against a wall. “I get these… I guess you could call them compulsions sometime to do or say a certain thing.”

“And you don’t know why at that precise moment you say or do it?” The Doctor looked at her.

“Nope, and it’s not always these knowing things or compulsions happen either.” Rose scratched her head. “Sometimes I get several ‘compulsions’ in a single day and other times it can go several days between each.”

“Nine hundred years of time and space and I have never met someone quite like you, Rose Tyler.” The Doctor murmured softly.

“And don’t you forget it.” Rose beamed at him, then she frowned. “When you say nine hundred years?”

“That’s my age.” The Doctor shrugged with a smirk.

“Well, you look good for your age, I guess.” Rose chuckled.

“Thank you.” The Doctor smiled brightly.

Suddenly there was a deep horn and a spaceship trailing black smoak passed them overhead and headed towards the city. It missed Tower Bridge, severed around St Paul’s, then with a nasty back-fire and a splutter, takes out Big Ben and crashed into the Thames.

“Adventure time?” Rose asked excitedly.

The Doctor just smiled and grabbed her hand to pulled her with him when he ran. As they came to a road block the Doctor actually pouted, “It’s blocked off.”

“The whole of London must be closing down.” Rose hummed.

“I can’t believe I'm here to see this.” And the Doctor was back to beaming. “This is fantastic!”

“Did you recognize the ship?” Rose asked.

“Nope.” The Doctor bounced on his toes.

“Do you know why it crashed?” Rose turned to him. “Did you know it was going to crash?”

“Nope and nope.” The Doctor laughed.

“This must be very exciting for you then.” Rose chuckled. “So, history is happening and we are stuck behind a road block.”

“Yes, we are.” The Doctor looked a little down at that.

“We could always do what everybody else does.” Rose offered and at the confused look the Doctor sent her she continued. “We could watch it on TV.”

Together they made their way back to the Tyler’s flat to watch the news. The doctor sits in front of the TV and sapped between different news reports.

“ _Big Ben destroyed as a UFO crash lands in Central London. Police reinforcements are drafted in from across the country to control widespread panic, looting and civil disturbance. A state of national emergency has been declared. Tom Hitchinson is at the scene.”_

“ ** _The police are urging the public not to panic. There's a help line number on screen right now if you're worried about friends or family.”_**

_“ The military are on the lookout for more spaceships. Until then, all flights in North American air space have been grounded.”_

**_“The army are sending divers into the wreck of the spaceship. No one knows what they're going to find.”_ **

_“ The President will address the nation live from the White House, but the Secretary General has asked that people watch the skies.”_

Jackie brought in a mug for Rose and her friend Ru Chan, but not the Doctor who was to absorbed in the news to say anything.

“He's a doctor.” Jackie explained to Ru. “He and Rose works together.”

“Are you sure that’s all between them?” Ru asked as he looked between Rose and the Doctor.

“Oi, I'm trying to listen.” The Doctor tried to hush them.

_“His current whereabouts. News is just coming in. We can go to Tom at the Embankment”._

**_“They've found a body. It's unconfirmed, but I'm being told a body has been found in the wreckage. A body of non-terrestrial origins. It's being brought ashore.”_ **

Rose felt a little bit claustrophobic so she stood up and walked out of the flat without her mother noticing.

“You okay?” the Doctor came and leaned against the railing beside her.

“Yeah, just got a bit to gossipy in there.” Rose shrugged.

“Wanna go and check out the alien they’ve found?” The Doctor asked.

“Can we really?” Rose wondered eagerly.

“Sure, come on.” The Doctor grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the Tardis as she laughed.

As the Doctor flew the Tardis towards the Albion Hospital where the alien body had been brought, he took a hammer and hit the center console when the flight started to get bumpy.

“You know, one day she's going to hit back.” Rose told him with a laugh.

“We have a special type of relationship.” The Doctor muttered as he pushed some buttons.

“That have a name for that sort of relationships.” Rose smirked.

The Doctor laughed loudly at her cheek as he landed the Tardis in the Albion Hospital. Then the two time travelers walked out of the Tardis to see that the Doctor had parked them in storage closet.

“Shush!” The Doctor hissed at his sonic as he unlocked the door.

“You are so weird.” Rose laughed quietly.

The Doctor just smiled at her as they walked into a room full of Red Berets – the Parachute Regiment. Rose and the Doctor stared at them as they stared at Rose and the Doctor for a moment until the soldiers grab their weapons and pointed them at Rose and the Doctor.

“Really?” Rose asked exasperated.

Suddenly they all heard a terrified scream and the Doctor took charge. “Defense plan delta! Come on. Move! Move!”

Rose ran along with the Doctor as he led her and the Marines towards the scream. As they arrived, they found a terrified female Dr cowering behind a desk with a cut on her head.

“It’s alive!” The woman gasped out.

Rose slowly walked out of the room into the corridor. A few minutes later a pig in a spacesuit came running out of the mortuary straight at Rose.

“Hey, it’s okay.” Rose knelt down, not seeing the doctor come out of the room after the pig. “You’ll be okay.”

Rose pulled the terrified pig close to her while she stroked its head softly and whispered quietly, trying to calm it down. She vaguely heard the Doctor order the soldiers not to shoot as she continued to soot the pig. Suddenly there was a loud bang and the pig sagged into her arms with a small whimper.

“No, no, no,” Rose gently placed the pig on the floor, tears running down her face as she stroked its face gently and whispered. “Go peacefully into the night and leave all the fear and suffering behind.”

“What did you do that for?!” The Doctor shouted at the soldiers. “It was just scared!”

“Typical humans.” Rose stood up and tried to dry her eyes. “They tend to kill what they don’t understand.”

Around fifteen minutes later the Doctor and Rose stood by the mortuary table were the pig had been placed as the woman, Dr. Sato, looked over the pig in shook. Rose almost wanted to tell Tosh to say ‘Hi’ to Jack for her but decided against it.

“I just assumed that’s what aliens look like.” Tosh said as she looked at the pig. “But you're saying that it’s an ordinary pig from Earth.”

“More like a mermaid. Victorian showmen used to draw the crowds by taking the skull of a cat, gluing it to a fish and calling it a mermaid.” The Doctor explained. “Now someone's taken a pig, opened up its brain, stuck bits on, then they've strapped it in that ship and made it dive bomb. It must've been terrified. They've taken this animal and turned it into a joke.”

“That poor pig.” Rose sniffled sadly. “He was so scared and they just killed him.”

“But at least he had you with him in his final moments.” The Doctor smiled kindly at her.

As Tosh started to ramble the doctor and Rose quietly snuck out of the mortuary and back to the Tardis and made their way back to the Powel Estate.

“I had a feeling that the whole crash landing was fake, it was just too perfect.” The Doctor said as he looked at something on the screen, not noticing when Mickey and Jackie entered the Tardis. “I mean, hitting Big Ben? Come on!”

“Doctor.” Rose called out loudly to get his attention.

“What?” He looked up at her.

“My mum’s here.” Rose looked a little awkward.

“Oh, that’s just what I need.” The Doctor looked at Jackie and then back at Rose. “Don’t you dare make this place domestic.”

“You ruined my life, Doctor.” Mickey accused. “Some people didn’t believe that Rose had gone travelling but that I had killed her!”

“You see what I mean?” The Doctor raised an eyebrow at Rose. “Domestic.”

“I bet you don’t even remember my name.” Micky sneered at the Doctor.

“Ricky.” The Doctor answered quickly forcing Rose to hold back a snort.

“It’s Mickey.” Mickey corrected.

“No, it’s Ricky.” The Doctor denied.

“I think I know my own name.” Micky huffed, annoyed.

“You think you know your own name?” The Doctor scoffed but secretly smiled as he saw Rose’s twinkling eyes. “How stupid are you?”

Jackie started to back away from the middle console, everything becoming too much and then she ran out with Rose calling after her that she would be up in a minute.

“That was a real spaceship but a fake alien.” Rose hummed as she looked at the Doctor.

“Yep.” The Doctor popped the p as he answered.

“Are they invading?” Rose murmured thoughtfully. “Or are they checking Earth’s defenses?”

“Funny way to invade, putting the world on red alert.” Micky said.

“You both have good points, not surprising from Rose though.” The Doctor winked at her. “So, what're they up to?”

A while later the Doctor were working under the Tardis as Rose and micky watched.

“So, what are you doing down there?” Mickey asked.

“Ricky…” the Doctor began.

“Mickey.” Mickey interrupted.

“Ricky.” The Doctor started again. “If I was to tell you what I was doing to the controls of my frankly magnificent time ship, would you even begin to understand?”

Rose felt the Tardis preen and giggle in her mind as the Doctor called her magnificent, which in turn made Rose chuckled quietly.

“I suppose not.” Mickey muttered.

“Well, shut it, then.” The Doctor snapped.

“Some friends you’ve got.” Micky huffed at Rose who just raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him. “I looked for a blue box on every street corner for a whole year, Rose.”

“It’s only been around a week for me.” Rose shrugged as she leaned back against the railing around the Tardis console.

“Not enough to miss me, then?” Mickey asked.

Rose didn’t answer, had Mickey always been this whiney and self-centered? He sounded like the only thing he cared about was if Rose had missed him, what had happened to him when Rose was gone etc. Honestly, Rose cared more about how Jackie had been and what she had been up to.

“So, now that you're back, are you going to stay?” Mickey asked but Rose could here the silent ‘with me’ at the end.

“Got it! Ha, ha! Patched in the radar, looped it back twelve hours so we can follow the flight of that spaceship.” The Doctor explained proudly before Rose could answer Mickey’s question. “Here we go. Hold on. Come on.”

Rose and the Doctor looked at the monitor to see the trajectory of the spaceship. It looked like it came from Earth, flew out into space, just to return again.

“That's the spaceship on its way to Earth, see? Except. Hold on. See?” The Doctor pointed at the monitor. “The spaceship did a sling shot round the Earth before it landed.”

“What does that mean?” Mickey asked.

“It means it came from Earth in the first place. It went up and came back down.” The Doctor muttered. “Whoever those aliens are, they haven't just arrived, they've been here for a while. The question is, what have they been doing?”

“It’s all about money.” Rose said distantly. “It’s always about money.”

“Rose?” The Doctor touched her arm gently.

“Huh?” Rose looked up at him, then she frowned. “I did it again, didn’t I?”

“Yeah but I’ll keep what you said in mind.” The Doctor smiled at her. “Seems like you tend to give me clues about stuff that I will need later to figure things out.”

“Thanks for not calling me a freak or look at me like I'm insane.” Rose looked down with a small smile.

“I would never do that.” The Doctor reassured, then he looked up at where Mickey were channel-hopping. “Hold on, I know that lot.”

_“It’s looking likely that the Government’s bringing in alien specialists – those people who have devoted their lives to studying outer space.”_ The woman on the screen said.

“UNIT. United Nations Intelligence Taskforce.” The Doctor explained. “Good people.”

“How do you know them?” Rose asked with a smile.

“’Cos he’s worked for them.” Mickey piped up with an ugly look on his face. “Oh yeah, don’t think I sat on my backside for twelve months, Doctor, I read up on you.” He turned towards Rose. “You look deep enough on the Internet or in the history books, and there's his name, followed by a list of the dead.”

“Do they list all those he saved to?” Rose asked with a serious look. she turned to the doctor with a smile. “If you know them, why don’t we go and help? And by we, I mean mostly you, I’ll just stand there and look pretty.”

“They wouldn't recognize me. I've changed a lot since the old days.” The Doctor laughed at Rose’s little speech. “Besides, the world is on a knife-edge. There’re aliens out there and fake aliens. We want to keep this alien out of the mix. I'm going undercover. And er, I'd better keep the Tardis out of sight. Ricky, you've got a car. You can do some driving.”

“Where are we going?” Mickey asked as he followed the Doctor and Rose towards the door.

“The roads are clearing.” The Doctor smiled brightly. “Let’s go and have a look at the spaceship.”

They walked out of the Tardis and straight into a helicopter spotlight as a police officer called out, “Do not move! Step away from the box and raise your hands above your heads.”

Mickey managed to run as police cars and Saxon armored personnel carries surrounded them. The name Saxon rang a bell in Rose’s head and she started to tap her foot in a four-tap beat.

“Rose!” Jackie ran towards her daughter only to be caught by a soldier.

“Raise your hands above your head.” The Police officer repeated. “You are under arrest.”

“Take me to your leader.” The Doctor beamed and Rose snorted.

As they sat in the police car Rose turned towards the Doctor with a raised eyebrow, “We are not being arrested, are we?”

“Nope, we are being escorted.” The Doctor chuckled. He really liked how clever and bright Rose was.

“Escorted?” Rose frowned then she turned wide eyed to the Doctor, “No way! You're kidding.”

“I'm not.” The Doctor smiled at her.

“10 Downing Street!” Rose gasped. “I think I might be a bit underdressed, though.”

“You look beautiful.” The Doctor muttered then he cleared his throat and raised his voice a little. “I hate to say it, but Mickey was right. Over the years I've visited this planet a lot of times, and I've been, er, noticed.”

“That could be both good and bad.” Rose murmured. “And now they need you?”

“Like it said on the news. They're gathering experts in alien knowledge.” The Doctor looked proud of himself. “And who's the biggest expert of the lot?”

“Patrick Moore?” Rose teased with a laugh.

“Apart from him.” The Doctor agreed with a laugh.

“Oh, don’t you just love it?” Rose chuckled as she looked out of the window.

“I'm telling you. Lloyd George, he used to drink me under the table.” The Doctor reminiscence. “Who's the Prime Minister now?”

“How should I know?” Rose shrugged. “I missed a year.”

“And nothing is tingling in your head?” The Doctor coaxed.

“No… except… I have the name Harriet Jones popping up but I do know for a fact that the prime minister is male.” Rose looked thoughtful.

As they stepped out of the car in front of 10 downing Street, the Doctor mugged in front of the cameras making Rose laugh as they were led inside. Together they walked into the waiting room, seeing an older woman mingle with the UNIT officers and other people.

“Ladies and gentlemen, can we convene?” A young man called out from the front of the room. “Quick as we can, please. It's this way on the right, and can I remind you ID cards are to be worn at all times.”

“Don’t trust the ID card.” Rose whispered quickly to the Doctor.

“Here’s your ID card.” The young man gave the Doctor his card but stopped Rose from going in with the Doctor. “I'm sorry, your companion doesn’t have clearance.”

“I don’t go anywhere without her.” The Doctor told him firmly.

“You're the code nine, not her. I'm sorry, Doctor. It is the Doctor, isn't it?” The young man asked but continued without confirmation. “She'll have to stay outside.”

“She’s staying with me.” The Doctor glared making the young man squirm.

“Look, even I don't have clearance to go in there. I can't let her in and that's a fact.” The young man sounded apologetic.

“It’s all right.” Rose reassured. “You go.”

“Excuse me.” The older woman who had mingled earlier walked up to them. “Are you the Doctor?”

“Sure.” The Doctor shrugged.

“Not now. We're busy. Can't you go home?” The young man sounded annoyed.

“I just need a word in private.” The woman ignored the young man as she kept looking at the Doctor.

“I suppose so.” The Doctor said to the woman and turned to Rose. “Don’t get in any trouble.”

“You haven't got clearance. Now leave it.” The young man glared at the woman as the Doctor left before he turned to Rose. “I'm going to have to leave you with security.”

“It's all right. I'll look after her. Let me be of some use.” The woman grabbed Rose and started to lead her away as she whispered. “Walk with me. Just keep walking.”

Rose let herself be led into the entrance hall by the, from the looks of it, terrified woman.

“That's right. Don't look round. Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North.” Harriet muttered quickly. “This friend of yours, he's an expert, is that right? He knows about aliens?”

“Why do you want to know?” Rose demanded as she stopped and Harriet started to cry.

Harriet led Rose to a cabinet room and showed her an empty body suit of some sort.

“They turned the body into a suit.” Harriet explained desperately, as if she was scared that Rose wouldn’t believe her. “A disguise for the thing inside!”

“It's all right. I believe you. It's, it's alien. They must have some serious technology behind this. If we could find it, we could use it.” Rose started to look around the room until she opened a cupboard and the body of Tony Blair fell out. “Oh, my God! Is that the…”

“Harriet, for God's sake. This has gone beyond a joke. You cannot just wander.” The young man from earlier came into the room and looked first at Harriet and then he turned towards Rose. “Oh, my God. That's the Prime Minister!”

“Oh! Has someone been naughty?” A female voice spoke up from the door.

“That's impossible. He left this afternoon.” The young man protested. “The Prime Minister left Downing Street. He was driven away!”

“And who told you that, hmm? Me.” The blond woman by the door gave a sick little giggle as she reached up to her hair line and started to pull almost like a sipper. When the ‘woman’ shook herself free from ‘her’ body suit ‘she’ was a big green alien with three sharp looking talons on each hand.

Rose saw the alien raise her hand towards the young man and quickly tackled him out of the way, feeling the talons catching her left shoulder. She pulled the man to his feet and urged him and Harriet when she saw the alien lit up in blue.

**A/N: Ohh, cliff hanger. Is it still called a cliff hanger if most of us basically knows what’s going to happen?**

**Anyway, I hope you liked this chapter :D**


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